Prophetic Books
by Born of the Water
Summary: Hi I love these kind've stories and dissided to write my own. Mainlt its just the Daybreakers reading the future books. Bad summery but...R&R please
1. Chapter 1

**Um hi this is my first Night World fanfic. And i thought about doing one like this for awhile so i just kinda bit the bullet and posted it if there seems to be any copying please please please tell me bacuase iv seen another stoy like this. and loved it but if there is any i'll fix it **

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Keller woke up with a killer headache, black dots dancing in front of her eyes and in a strange last thing she remembered was going to meet Winnie then nothing. Keller looked at the room she was in and her eyes widened in shock all around the spacious room were unconscious teenagers the youngest probably sixteen. Most of them were vampires, some humans, one girl bore the symbol of a witch, and one boy seemed to be a shape shifter like her. After determining what the out cold teens were Keller surveyed her surroundings. The room was huge it looked like they were in the middle of a large den. The carpet led to hard wood floor where on her left Keller saw three doors and a stair case that lead to the second floor. On her right were two more doors and between them was a bookcase with a stuffed panther on top. Keller growled low in her throat at who could do such a thing. As she continued to survey the room and saw another bookcase with a stuffed cheetah on top, this is ridiculous, she thought. A few feet from where the kids were there was two huge couches, a couple of atamans, and a few chairs.

"Ugh" Keller looked down as one of the teen with black hair and black eyes sat up rubbing his head. This must have triggered some thing because slowly but surely everyone started to get up either rubbing his or her head or their neck. And as soon as everyone gained their bearings questions started erupting like a volcano. "Were are we" (**since its from no ones POV I'll just use the character's names)** Rowan asked

"Rowan?" Delos asked

"Delos?" Jez asked

"Jez?" Morgead asked looking relieved and angry

" Jez?" Ash asked

"Ash?" Jade said "Delos?" she looked around confused. Then she squinted at a girl in the crowd. "Thea?" she asked

"Jade, Rowan Kestrel." Thea said. Then she looked around "Quinn?" she asked.

"Quinn?" James asked "Ash" he said looking at the two worriedly

"Theirry?" Quinn asked

"Rashel?" Keller asked

"James?" Poppy asked

"Keller" Rashel said eyeing her and the other Night People warily

"Poppy." James said

**(a/n I feel conflicted!)**

"Okay you all seemed to know each other" Maggie said

"Well most of us are cousins" James said "Except Poppy, uh Morgead, and Theirry"

"Big family" Mary-Lynette said

"Alright you know us know who are you" Jade said looking at Mark

"Mary-Lynette"

"Mark"

"Eric"

"Gillian"

"David"

"Rashel" she said, keeping close watch on the Night World people. Even Keller.

"Hannah"

Theirry was staring at her, or most likely her birthmark.

"Maggie"

"Galen"

"Keller"

"All right now that everyone knows each other, why are we here?" Quinn asked icily

"I don't know but I'm leaving" Jez said heading for the door not waiting for Morgead to ask the questions she knew he wanted to.

"I wouln'd do that if I were you" some one said

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**Okay please tell me what you think and please say if ther's coyimg thx**


	2. Future and Past collide

Hola! Thank you soo much to everyone who reviewed that made my day after having to go to Saterday testing so i'm putting up two chapters today

I own nothing by L.J. Smith darn!

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"I wouldn't do that if I were you," some one said

The teens turned around startled in the doorway to the right of the bookcase stood Ash. Everyone turned from the one in the den to the one leaning against the doorframe.

(A/N alright here's were it gets confusing the future selves are in it. For the future people the names will be in **bold**)

"What's going on here" Ash asked glaring at the one in the door frame

"Nothing I'm you and you're me, simple. But as to why you're here that's simple too it's to read those books,"** Ash **said. Pointing to three books in the middle of the couches, chairs and atamans.

"What about the books" Quinn inquired

"Who's we" Rowan asked staring curiously at her brother in the doorframe he seemed different "And were are you from?"

"Isn't it obvious"** Ash** asked Rowan, "I'm from the future"

Morgead scoffed "And you expect us to believe that"

"Well considering there's two of them I'd think it seems only logical." Now the teens looked behind them were **Thea** stepped through the door **Eric **behind her. The past versions eyes widened in shock and they looked at each other then at **Thea**.

"Seems logical to me" They looked up as they saw **Poppy**, leaning on the banister upstairs chin resting on her hands, **James **next to her grinning down at the future Daybreakers.

"Its seems like the only way to explain it" said **Jez** stepping from the door on the other side of the book case **Morgead** giving them a look that said 'what do you think'

"And as it seem we have some explaining to do it would probably be best you listen in case you don't want to get hurt" **Quinn **told them giving a Mad Hatter gin stepping from the door next to the one **The **and **Eric** had recently come from.

(a/n **Why did I put so many doors in this house?)**

"Yeah the wards **Thea **and **I **put on the house are enough to hurt even a vampire,"** Gillian** said stepping from the door under the stair case

The teens stood astounded especially the humans, and lost witch, at the word 'vampire'.

**David** stepped behind **Gillian** giving them a timid wave.

"Why wouldn't you believe it your talking to your self" **Maggie** said as she and **Delos** popped up from behind the bookcase near the stair case

"Great now we have even more explaining to even though we knew it was coming. I was hoping to not over whelm them before the actual explaining began." **Theirry**, said. The bookcase had swung open to revel another opening behind it. **Hannah** stood beside him.

"Better late than never you know how it is. The shock learning about the Night World" **Mary-Lynette** said stepping by **Ash**. He glanced at her and gave a small smile, unnoticeable to the other teens.

"I don't believe it. You're telling them" Quinn growled at the future versions who had gathered in front of their past selves "Your telling vermin about the Night World" The future Daybreakers glared at him at the word 'vermin'.

A growl broke through awkward silence the panther and cheetah they thought was stuffed leaped off the bookshelves changing in mid leap landing with the group **Keller** and **Galen **stood

"Believe it they're going to find out sooner or later. Better sooner than later"** Keller** said

"Better they find out know then when their lives depend on it" **Galen** agreed

"This is 'we'"** Ash** said


	3. Explinations

Hi! this is the last chapter for today i might put another one up by next week

Why can't i own the Night world?

brother: mutters "Because L.J Smith does"

"I going to get you!"

brother: runs away

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"Alright! Stop!" Poppy said exasperated "WHAT are you talking about? The Night World? Wards? Vampires? And how did you come from the future?" she asked

"The Night World" Rashel started "Is a secret organization around the world that involves vampires, witches, shape shifters, and werewolves." Rashel said while reaching for her bokken. The Night Worlders stared at her in shock.

"And how would you know that?" Kesterel asked dangerously

"She's a vampire hunter,"** Quinn** said pleasantly

Rashel stared at him her hand still trying to reach her wooden weapon. The Night People took a defensive stand.** Quinn **stiffened Keller was ready to help protect her sister.

The humans were shocked at what they were hearing

Poppy looked at James who kept his eyes on Rashel

"You're a vampire aren't you?" she asked him, shocked but it helped explain a lot about him. He looked at her and sighed

"Yes. A lamia" he said "A born vampire"

"What about the wards" Maggie asked

"Wards are protection spells." Thae said

"And right now there are enough wards on the house to knock out even a vampire" **Gillian** said "We came to the past by one of **Thea's** spells"

"So you see there no point in fighting," **Theirry **said"Your stuck until the books get read"

"And if we don't read?" Ash asked

**Rashel **shrugged"How long do you want to be stuck here?" she said to their past versions

"Wait why do we have to read the books" Mary-lynette asked glancing around her at her brother then the Night People who looked like they were ready to strike.

"The books contain your future. Everyone in this room has a story in one of the books"** Hannah **said

"But why would we need to read bout our future why don't you just tell us?" that came from Eric

The future people looked at each other

"Its not the same"** Theirry **said, "In the books they contain your thought and feelings. They can help you in the years to come." He said

"Alright but who are vermin" Poppy asked

" Vermin are you" Ash snapped at Poppy "Humans" Circle Daybreak looked fiercely at him, eyes narrowed.

"You'll change your mind about that"** Quinn **said his voice showed so much spite and impatients his soulmate glanced at him.

Ash rolled his eyes

"Sure" he jeered

Mary-Lynette frowned at him

"What do you have against humans" she asked disapprovingly

"I wouldn't answer that,"** Ash** told his younger self

Ash looked at his future self and kept his mouth shut.

"Since when do you take orders" Quinn asked him mockingly. Rashel who was closets to him slapped the back of his head, apparently she'd stopped trying to reach her bokken. Quinn rounded to her but didn't make a move to hurt her she looked startled wondering why she slapped him. The younger Night People eased out of their fighting positions trying not to a laugh went through the future soulmates filling the house.

"Nothings changed much" **Morgead **said between laughter.

Once the laughing had stopped, Thea asked"What about the laws. They say were not supposed to tell humans about the Night World penalty is death"

"What law" Gillian asked

"Night World law says you can never tell a human about the Night World" Delos said.

"That's true"** Poppy** said to Thea "But no one knows you've been told as long as no one tells" she looked at Quinn

"What about you" James said "you all have obviously told humans about was why haven't you been captured?"

"Things have…changed since now," **Gillian** said, the Night Worlders stared at her questioningly.

With that the teens from the future started to leave except **Keller and Galen.**

"Wait!" Hannah said "Won't people wonder why we suddenly disappeared" she asked

The Day breakers grimaced"That's where we'll be" **David **said

"So no one gets suspicious of where you've gone we'll pose us you for now" **Theirry **said

"Should be easy"** Poppy **said dryly

"Were only a few years older there's not much of a difference" **Maggie **said

"What about the people who's future selves aren't here"Mary-Lynetteasked eyeing Mark.

"They're already out there they just didn't come with us"** Ash** said

"What about them" Jez asked pointing to** Keller **and** Galen**

"Eighteen teens in the same room there has to be some supervision so you don't kill each other" **Quinn** said

"Have fun" **Morgead** said to **Keller **and **Galen** as **Thea** muttered under her breathe and kept her mind shielded from the vampires. With a flash of light they were gone.

"It's time to start" **Galen** said. The teenagers shuffled to the take their seats

"Does it matter where we start" Hannah asked. She was seated in a chair next to Theirry.

"No" **Keller **said "Just pick whose ever story you want to read first and we'll tell you what the stories called" she said

Every one looked around for a minute when Ash said "I vote in Quinn's story" they made agreeing noises. The humans still not sure what to think. Quinn huffed from were he sat by Rashel

"Fine" he said "Just get it over with so we can leave"

**Keller** and **Galen **at each other"_Apparently they don't think that these stories more than one person.." _**Keller** thought through her link to **Galen**

"_This will be fun,_" he said back

"All right, Quinn's is in the second book it called The Chosen" **Galen** said and he and**Keller **sat back to watch the show.

"I'll read first" Poppy said.

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I'm not going in the books order Quinn and Rashel are going first this is for *lamia vampire* anyone tell me who you want to go after them. review please


	4. The Cosen C1

Hi here is Quinn and Rashels sorry if it's no good I tried

I own nothing by L.J Smith

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Gillian stood from the sofa were she was squished between David and Mar-Lynette, who didn't look happy sitting next to Ash, picked up the book and handed it to Poppy.

"Thanks, Gillian" Poppy said then she leaned back seeming to forget she was on an ataman and lost her balance. James caught her before she fell.

"Thanks" she breathed in relief. Her friend might be a vampire but he was still her friend. James smiled at her and settled back in his place next to her.

Poppy opened the book "Chapter one.** It happened at Rashel's birthday when she turned five years old."**

Rashels breath hitched at the beginning sentence she didn't want to relieve this memory.

"I thought this was Quinn's story" Ash complained to **Keller**.

She grinned, "It is" she said "Did you ever wonder why there are three books with nine stories in all when there are eighteen of you. These books are prophetic they're your future. There are two people's future in the books this one happens to be Quinn and Rashels."

Quinn and Rashel glanced at each other. Rashel scowled and looked away she didn't know how she felt about being in a book with a parasite. Quinn grimaced but couldn't help but admire her courage, an eighteen year old who was brave enough to face down vampires and more importantly brave enough to actually hit him. He turned back to Poppy as she started reading again.

"**Can we go in the tubes?**

"What are the tubes she is talking about" Delos asked. Some one sighed. Humans looked at him curiously.

"It's a huge structure that is usually built out of plastic tubes. They go up and down and basically any way they were built. There are usually different things in side of them for kids to play on like a ball pit or rope webs" Mary-Lynette said as Ash rolled his eyes.

**She was having her birthday at a carnival and it had the biggest climbing structure of tubes she had ever seen. Her mother smiled "Okay, kitten-"**

"Kitten?" Quinn asked and smirked

Rashel frowned at him "Yes, kitten her pet name for me before she was murdered" Rashel said coldly. Quinn stopped smirking and the girls in the room sucked in a breath many knew how it was to lose a mother or father.

"I'm sorry" Mary-Lynette said and Hannah nodded. Rashel just queued for Poppy to start reading again.

"**But take care of Timmy. He's not as fast as you are.**

Quinn frowned who was Timmy? Wait why did he care? He resumed listening to the story

**They were the last words her mother ever said to her. Rashel didn't have to be told thought. She always took care of Timmy: he was a whole month younger than she was, and he wasn't even going to kindergarten next year. He had silky black hair, blue eyes, and a sweet smile. Rashel had dark hair, too, but her eyes were green- green as emeralds Mommy always said. Green as a cats."**

Quinn glanced at Rashels eyes they did look slightly cat like. Ash and Morgead noticed him staring. Quinn looked away.

"**As they climbed through the tubes she kept glancing back at him, and when they got to a long row of vinyl-padded stairs- slippery and easy to slide off of- she held out a hand to help him up. **

**Timmy beamed at her, his tilted blue eyes shining with adoration. When they had both crawled to the top of the stairs, Rashel let go of his hand.**

**She was heading toward the spider web, a big room made entirely of rope and net Every so often she glanced through a fish-bowl window in one of the tubes and saw her mother waving at her from below. But then another mother came to talk to her and Rashel stopped looking out. Parents never seemed to be able to talk and wave at the same time."**

Some of the teens nodded remembering when they were younger waving at their parents from those kinds of tubes and seeing their parents talking to someone else. Others wished their parents had carried enough to actually take them to one of those playgrounds.

"**She concentrated on getting, which smelled like plastic and old socks"**

Some of the girls scrunched up their noses

"**She pretended she was a rabbit in a tunnel"**

The boy snickered and Rashel glared at them. The girls closest to the boys smacked them.

"**And she kept an eye on Timmy- until they got to the base of the spider web. It was far back in the climbing structure. There were no other kids around, big, little, and almost no noise. A white rope with knots at regular intervals stretched above Rashel, higher and higher, leading to the web itself. **

"**Okay, you stay here and I'll go up and see how you do it," she said to Timmy. This was sort of a fib."**

"It's not okay to lie," Ash said in a mock parental tone. Rashel glared at him James shook his head at his cousin.

"Shut it, parasite" she snapped

"Parasite?" he asked getting angrier.

Rashel just turned away from him and Poppy continued to read

"**The truth was that she didn't think Timmy could make it, and if she waited for him, neither of them would get up."**

Guilt turned in Rashel if only she had waited for him he might be here today.

"**No, I don't want you to go without me, Timmy said. There was a touch of anxiety in his voice.**

"**It's only going to take a second," Rashel said. She knew, and she added, "No big kids are going to come and push you" **

**Timmy still looked doubtful. Rashel said thoughtfullt, "Don't you want ice cream cake when we get back to my house?"**

**It wasn't even a veiled threat.**

Rashel sighed a threat was the last thing she said to Timmy. Quinn looked at her he, strangely, he wanted to make her feel better. He tried to probe her mind but it was blocked**. **Such a strange human, he thought, yet he felt… Quinn frowned. It didn't matter what he felt she was human.

**Timmy looked confused, then sighed heavily and nodded.**

"**Okay I'll wait."**

**And those were the last words Rashel heard him say.**

"Timmy was killed too?" Hannah asked. Rashel nodded

"By the same vampire."

"A vampire killed them both." Jez asked her "Did you ever find out who it was?" If Rashel hadn't found him Jez would and stake him for doing this. It had been almost a year since she had left the gang and became a vampire hunter. And Morgead seemed like he still wanted to ask, or more likely yell at her, about why she left, but since there future selves said there was a book about each of them Morgead would probably soon find out why she left.

"No" Rashel said solemnly. Poppy started to read again.

**She climbed the rope. It was even harder than she'd thought it would be, but when she got to the top it was wonderful. The whole world was a squiggly moving mass of netting. She had to hang on with both hands to keep her balance and try to curl her feet around the rough quivering lengths of cable. She could feel the air and sunlight. She laughed with exhilaration and, bounced, looking at the colored plastic tubes all around her."**

"That sounds so fun!" Jade squealed with excitement. Kestrel rolled her eyes at Jade's giddiness.

**When she looked back down for Timmy, he was gone**

The girls sucked in a breath.

**Rashel's stomach tensed. He **_**had**_** to be there. He'd promised to wait.**

**But he wasn't. She could see the entire padded room from here, and it was empty. **

**Okay, he must have gone back through the tubes. Rashel made her way staggering and swaying, from one handhold to another until she got to the rope. Then she climbed down quickly and stuck her head in a tube, blinking in the dimness. **

"**Timmy?" Her voice was a muffled echo. There was no answer and what she could see of the tube was empty. "Timmy!" **

**Rashel was getting a very bad feeling.**

"Even back then you had the instincts of a vampire hunter" Quinn said

"Yes" Rashel answered "And they still come in handy today"

**In her head, she kept hearing her mother say, **_**Take care of Timmy**_**. **

**But she hadn't taken care of him. And he could be anywhere by now, lost in the giant structure, maybe crying, maybe getting shoved around by big kids. Maybe even going to tell her mother.**

"That's what your worried about" Morgead asked cracking a smile

"I was five!" Rashel defended herself

Quinn wanted to hit Morgead for some reason

**That's when she saw the gap in the padded room. It was just big enough for a four- year- old or a very slim five-year-old** **to get through. A space between two cushiony walls that led to out side. And Rashel knew immediately that's were Timmy had gone. It was like him to take the quickest way out. He was probably on his way to tell her mother right now.**

**Rashel was a very slim five-year-old. She wiggled through the gap, only sticking once. Then she was outside, breathless in the dusty shade.**

**She was about to head toward the front of the climbing structure when she noticed the tent flap fluttering. **

**The tent was made of shiny vinyl and its red and yellow stripes were much brighter than the plastic tubes. The loose flap moved in the breeze and Rashel knew anyone could just lift it and walk in.**

**Timmy wouldn't go in **_**there**_**, she thought. It wouldn't be like him at all. **

"It doesn't sound like him" Jez said, "He probably wouldn't go in there unless he was

lured."

"He was Rashel agreed. Not all these vampires in here are bad, she thought. Although she wouldn't mind staking Ash or Morgead. She still wasn't sure why she was in a story with Quinn, one of the most dangerous made vampires. Or what she had to do with him.

**But somehow Rashel had an odd feeling.**

**She stared at the flap hesitating, smelling dust and popcorn in the air. I'm brave, she told herself, and sidled forward. She pushed on the tent beside the flap to widen the gap, and peered was to dark to see anything, but the smell of popcorn was stronger. Rashel moved farther and farther until she was actually in the tent. And then her eyes adjusted**

Human's eyes don't adjust that fast, Keller thought

"**And she realized she wasn't alone. **

**There was a tall man in the tent. He was wearing a long light colored trench coat, even though it was warm outside. He didn't seem to notice Rashel because he had something in his arms.**

The Night Worlders had caught on. Both **Keller and Galen** were frowning, James shook his head at eating a little kid, Ash and Morgead didn't care, Thea was repulsed, Rashel and Jez grit their teeth this is why they became vampire hunters to rid the world of vampires like this, Quinn found he actually cared that Rashel felt sad about losing her friend.

"**And his head, and his head was bent down to it, and he was doing some thing to it.**

**And then Rashel that the grown-ups had lied, when they said** **ogres and monsters and the things in fairy-tales weren't real.**

Some of the Night People laughed Thea and James mouth twitched.

"They didn't lie" Thea said, "They just didn't know, and ogres aren't real"

"I know that now" Rashel huffed

"Would you all shut up?" Quinn yelled surprising everyone including himself. The laughter died and they stared at him. **Keller and Galen** smiled. He just didn't like them laughing at Rashel. What is wrong with him?

"_Looks like the soulmate principle is taking effect"_ **Galen **thought to **Keller**

"_And its so hard to ignore" _she thought. **G**alen smirked.

Quinn just signaled for Poppy to continue

**Because the tall man had Timmy, and he was **_**eating**_** him.**

Poppy grimaced the humans were kinda grossed out."Who wants to read now," Poppy asked.

Jez raised her hand she wanted to know what this vampire looked like. Poppy got up from the ataman and walked to were Jez sat between Morgead and Thea, who didn't mind sitting next to Eric, on the other couch.

"Chapter two" Jez said

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Well there it is please tell me what you think


	5. The Cosen C2

HI i relised I was saying Galen was a cheetah when he's a lepord whoops sorry

No I don't own any thing by L.J. Smith

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"Chapter two" Jez said.

**Eating him or doing something with his teeth. Tearing and sucking. Making noises like Pal with his dog food.**

"Oh, gross" Hannah said holding her stomach

"Gross or not we have to feed to live" Morgead answered her with obvious distaste.

"Yeah but you don't have to make feeding sound like a dog with his food" James disagreed.

"Feeding?" Mary-Lynette asked

"Drinking blood" Ash answered his eyes holding a mischievous glint. As looked at him his eyes seemed to be changing: green, then purple, next gray. Looking at them made Mary-Lynette dizzy.

She looked away.

**For a moment Rashel was frozen. The whole world changed and everything seemed like a dream. Then she heard somebody screaming and her throat hurt and she knew it was her.**

**And then the tall man **_**looked**_** at her**.

**He lifted his head and looked. And she knew that his face alone was going to give her nightmares forever. **

**Not that he was ugly.**

"So you think Timmy's attacker is cute?" Ash teased.

"Oh, that is it!" Rashel yelled. Quinn had to hold her back from lunging at him. Quinn said something to her that seemed to calm her down, she struggling and sat back in her seat to finish the story.

Ash glanced at Quinn disgusted, before he would have let the human meet her fate now he's protecting her?

Mary-Lynette was furious at him for what he said to Rashel, so she hit him.

Zzzt. The two jumped, they'd been shocked.

**Keller smiled **_**two more down**_ she thought.

"What?" James asked his cousin

Ash glanced at Mary-Lynette who was looking at him with wide eyes.

"Nothing" he muttered

Jez continued to read

**But his hair was red as blood and his eyes that shone gold, like an animals.**

Jez chocked out the mystery man description. Any Redfers, pure or blood tied, knew those features. They all looked at one another one name floated through their minds: Hunter.

"Rashel are you positive that's who the man looked like?" Thea asked her

"Yes" Rashel confirmed. She looked around the room as some of the teens had gone still, then she looked at Quinn beside her, he had stiffened and was looking at the other Redferns, nodding like some thing had just been established.

Rashel looked at them "You know who it is don't you?"

She asked almost desperately.

Thea nodded "Hunter Redfern" she whispered

Quinn saw the determined look in her eye and quickly said, "He's not some one you want to mess with. He has high rank in the NightWorld council." He warned

Rashel barley heard hi or his warning all she knew was when she got out of this place she would find him and stake him for the trouble he had caused.

Jez started to read again

**There was a light in them that was like nothing she had ever seen.**

**She ran then. It was wrong to leave Timmy, but she was too scared to stay. She wasn't brave; she was a baby, but she couldn't help it.**

"You were only five and to just see your friend be attacked by a vampire is something all kids would be afraid to see. At least you were smart enough to run." Thea said trying to cheer Rashel up.

"**She was still screaming as she turned around and darted through the flap in the tent. **

_**Almost**_** darted through. Her head and shoulders got outside and she saw red plastic tubes rising above her- and then a hand clamped on the back of her Gymboree shirt. A big strong hand that stopped her in mid-flight Rashel was as helpless as a baby kitten against it.**

**But just as she was dragged back into the tent she saw something. Her **_**mother**_**. Her mother was coming around the corner of the climbing structure. She'd heard Rashel screaming. **

**Her mothers eyes were big and her mouth was open, and she was moving fast. She was coming to save Rashel.**

The ones who cared looked away with tears they knew Rashels mother didn't stand a chance against Hunter.

"**Mommeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Rashel screamed**

No. Rashel thought, just shut up. But there was no point she knew what would happen next and all the yelling at herself would do nothing to bring her mother back.

(a/n I know this sounds mean I almost cried writing it)

**And then she was pulled back inside. The man threw her to one side the way a kid at preschool would throw a piece of crumpled paper. Rashel landed hard and felt a pain in her leg that normally would have mad her cry. Now she hardly noticed it. She was staring at Timmy, who was lying on the ground near her. Timmy looked strange. His body was like a rag doll-arms and legs flopped out. His skin was white his eyes were staring straight up at the top of the tent.**

**There were two big holes in his throat, with blood all around them.**

**Rashel whimpered. She was too frightened to scream anymore. But just then she saw white daylight, and a figure in front of it. Mommy. **

**Mommy was pulling the tent flap open. Mommy was inside, looking around for Rashel.**

**That was when the worst thing happened. The worst and the strangest, the thing the police never believed when Rashel told them later. **

"They usually never do when it comes to Night People" Quinn sighed

**Rashel saw her mother's mouth open; saw her mother looking at her, about to say something.**

**And then she heard a voice but it wasn't Mommy's voice.**

**And it wasn't an out loud voice. It was inside her head.**

_**Wait! There's nothing wrong here. But you need to stand very**_**,**_** very still.**_

"He' s trying to use mind control," Theirry said. I was the first tie they had heard him talk since this whole thing began. He got some confused looks. He sighed, "Those stories of vampires being able to control people's mind are true." The looks turned to _Oh's_.

**Rashel looked at the tall man. His mouth wasn't moving, but the voice was his. Her mother was looking at him, too, and her expression was changing becoming relaxed and…stupid. **

Some one chuckled

"**Mommy was standing very, very still.**

**Then the tall man hit Mommy once on the side of her neck and she fell over and her head flopped the wrong way like a broken doll. Her dark hair was lying in the dirt. **

Rashel gritted her teeth as her eyes filled at the memory. "Oh, dear," Rowan said. Kestrel tried her best no to cry. Jez kept her voice level though the story saddened her. Gillian ducked her head so her hair covered that she was crying. Other girls were letting their tears flow freely. The boys closets o them trying, awkwardly, to comfort them.

**Rashel saw that and everything was even more like a dream. Her mother was dead. Timmy was dead. And the man was looking at her.**

The tears couldn't be held back any longer. They fell staining Rashels cheeks. But her expression stayed emotionless. Quinn felt pity turn in his stomach, he opened his mouth to say something then closed it and turned back to Jez, He hit Rashels arm in the process, lighting went down both their arms. But nothing was said.

_**Your not upset,**_** came the voice in her head. **_**You're not frightened. You want to come right here.**_

**Rashel could feel the pull of the voice. It was drawing her closer and closer. It was making her still and no afraid, Making her forget her mother.**

Quinn's anger burned silently. He already hated Hunter this only made it more so. First he killed Rashel's friend and mother now her wanted to kill Rashel. What he use to think about humans was gone now some still remained, but all that mattered right now was that the human girl next him crying and because of Hunter. Quinn had never believed in the soulmate principle but now… he wasn't so sure it was just a fable. But how could he love somebody that hunted his own kind?

**But then she saw the tall man's golden eyes and they were **_**hungry**_**. And all of the sudden she remembered what he wanted to do to her.**

**Not me! **

**She jerked away from the voice and dove for the tent flap again.**

**This tome she got all the way out side. And she threw herself straight at the gap in the climbing structure.**

**She was thinking in a different way than she had ever thought before. The Rashel that had watched Mommy was locked away in a little room inside her, crying. It was a new Rashel who wiggled desperately through the gap in the padded room, a smart Rashel who knew there was no point in crying because there was nobody who cared anymore. Mommy couldn't save her so she had to save herself.**

"Such sad thoughts for a five year old" Poppy sniffled leaning on James.

**She felt a hand grab her ankle, hard enough to almost crush her bones. It yanked trying to drag her back through the gap. Rashel kicked backward with al her strength and twisted, and her sock came off and she pulled her led into the padded room.**

_**Come back. You need to come back right now**_**! **

**The voice was like a teacher voice it was hard no to listen. But Rashel was already scrambling into the plastic tube in front of her. She went faster than she ever had before, hurting her knees, propelling her self with her bare foot.**

**When she got to the first fish-bowl window, though, she saw a face looking at her.**

**It was the tall man. He was staring at her. He banged on the plastic as she went by.**

**Fear cracked in Rashel like a belt. She scrambled faster, and the knocks on the tube followed her.**

**He was underneath her now.**

**Keeping up with her. Rashel passed another window and looked down. She could see his hair shining in the sunlight. She could see his pale face looking up at her.**

**And his eyes**

_**Come down,**_** the voice wasn't stern anymore. It was sweet **_**Come down and we'll go get some ice cream. What kind of ice cream do you like best.**_

"Ice cream? What is ice cream?" Delos asked.

The humans again looked at him curiously.

Rowan sighed. "Forgive him he grew up isolated"

Maggie who was sitting in the chair next his wiped her eyes and answered him "Ice cream is like a dessert. I s made out of different things mixed together with flavoring and ice. Then it gains a creamy texture. You can either put it in a cup, cone, or bowl with different toppings on top."

"Interesting." Delos said. He wasn't talking just about the ice cream this girl Maggie didn't address him the way his subjects would she didn't even seem afraid of him.

Jez rolled her eyes at the prince and continued to read

**Rashel** **knew then that this is how he'd gotten Timmy into the tent. She didn't even pause in her scrambling**

Smart girl, Keller thought

**But she couldn't get away from him. He was traveling under her, waiting for her to come out or in to a place where he could reach in and grab her.**

**Higher. I need to get higher, she thought**

**She moved instinctively, as if some sixth sense was telling her which way to turn each time she had a choice. She went through angled tubes, straight tubes, tubes that weren't solid at all, but made of woven canvas stripes. Ad finally she got to the place were she could go no higher.**

**It was a square room with a padded floor and netting sides. She was at the front of the climbing structure: she could see mothers and fathers standing and sitting in little groups. She could feel the wind**

**Below her, looking up was the tall man.**

_**Chocolate brownie? Mint chip? Bubble gum.**_

Quinn cracked a smile he wasn't sure but the thought of the powerful Hunter having to offer ice cream to a little girl he couldn't control or catch, was amusing.

**The voice was putting pictures in her mind. Tastes. Rashel looked around frantically.**

**There was so much noise- every kid in the climbing structure was yelling. Who would even notice her if she shouted? They'd think she was joking around.**

_**All you have to do is come down.**_

_**You know you have to come down sometime.**_

**Rashel looked into the pale face turned up to her. The eyes were like dark holes. Hungry. Patient. Certain.**

**He knew he was going to get her.**

**He was going to win she had no way to fight him.**

**And then something tore inside Rashel and she did the only thing a five-year-old could do against an adult.**

**She shoved her hand between the rough cords that made the netting, scrapping off skin. She pushed her whole small arm through and pointed down at the tall man.**

**And she screamed in a way she'd never screamed before. Piercing shrieks that cut through the happy noise of the other kids. She screamed the way Ms. Bruce at preschool taught her to do if any stranger tried to bother her.**

"**Help meeeeeee! Help meeeeeeee! That man tried to touch me!"**

**She kept screaming it, kept pointing. And she saw people looking at her.**

**But they didn't do anything. They just stared. Lost of faces, looking up at her. Nobody moving.**

"Why isn't anyone trying to help" Eric asked

"You don't see a scared five-year-old screaming for no reason," Thea agreed

The whole room started yelling about how someone should be trying to help Rashel.

Rashel just sat there surprised. That the Night Worlders and humans were agreeing. She knew Hunter had descendents in the room and even they were agreeing someone should be trying to help Rashel. Simultaneous growls broke through the yelling.

Everyone turned to **Keller and Galen**. They were retaking human form.

"Enough" **Galen said**

"You wont get anywhere in the books if you keep this up"** Keller **told them. She just motioned for Jez to continue reading

"**In a way, it was even worse than anything that had happened before. They could hear her, but nobody was going to help her.**

**And then she saw somebody moving.**

**It was a big boy, not quit a grown-up man. He was wearing a uniform like the one Rashel's father used to wear before he died. That meant he was a Marine.**

**He was going toward the tall man, and his face was dark and angry. And now, as if they had needed an example, other people were moving, too. **

Thea muttered under her breath about how they shouldn't have needed an example. Eric heard her and tried to hide a smile.

**Several men who looked like father. A women with a cellular phone.**

**The tall man turned and ran.**

**He ducked under he climbing structure, heading toward the back, toward the tent where Rashels mother was. He moved very fast, much faster than any of the people in the crowed. **

**But he sent words to Rashels mind before he disappeared completely.**

_**See you later**_**.**

Rashel had never forgotten those words. And she felt some day soon that promise whould be fulfilled

**When he was definitely gone, Rashel slumped against the netting, felling the rough cord bite into her cheek. People down below were calling to her; kids just behind her were whispered.**

**None of it mattered. **

**She could cry now; it would be okay, but she seemed to have any tears.**

**The police were no good. There were two officers, a man and a woman. The woman believed Rashel a little. But every time her eyes would start to believe, she'd shake her head and say, "But what was the man really doing to Timmy? Baby-doll, sweetie, I know its awful, but just try to remember."**

**The man didn't even believe a little. Rashel would have traded them both for the Marine back at the carnival.**

"Human police don't ever think its real" Thea said

"I think the boy police was a werewolf" Rashel said "Just another Night Wolder keeping the secret. Not giving a hint that he thought I was telling the truth"

**All they found in the tent was her mother with a broken neck. No Timmy Rashel wasn't sure but she thought the man had probably taken him.**

"Hunter probably did" Ash said "He might have turned him"

James glared at him as Rashel paled, she knew what he meant when he said Hunter had turned Timmy. Though she'd rather not think about it.

**She didn't think about why.**

**Eventually the police drove her to her Aunt Corinne's, who was the only family she had left now. Aunt Corinne was old and her bony hands hurt Rashel's arms when she clutched her and cried. **

**She out Rashel in a bedroom full of strange smells and tried to give her medicine to make her sleep .It was like cough syrup, but it made her tough numb. Rashel waited until Aunt Corrinne was gone, then she spat it into her hand and wiped her hand on the sheets, way down at the foot of the bed where the blankets tucked in.**

"Good place to hide the evidence," Keller said

**And then she put her arms around her hunched up knees and sat staring into the darkness.**

**She was to little, too helpless. That was the problem. That was the problem. She wasn't going to be able to do anything against him when he came back.**

**Because of course he was coming back.**

"How do you know he's coming back," Poppy asked

"Because she knows he's secret," Theirry answered before Rashel could "And he promised" Theirry grimaced

**She what the man was, even if the adults didn't believe her. He was a vampire, just like on TV. A monster **

Some of the vampires winced at the word 'monster'

**That drank blood. And she knew she knew.**

**That was why he promised to see her later**

**At last, when Aunt Corinne's house was quite, Rashel tiptoed to the closet and slid it open. She climbed the shoe rack and kicked and squirmed until she was on top shelf above the clothes. It was narrow, but wide enough for her. That was one good thing about being little.**

**She had to use every advantage she had.**

"Developing the instincts of a hunter" Quinn muttered

**With her toe, she slid the closet door back shut. Then she piled sweaters and other folded things on top of herself, covering even her head. And finally she curled up on the hard bare wood and shut her eyes. **

**Sometime in the night she smelled smoke.**

**She got down from the shelf- falling more than climbing- and saw flames in her bedroom.**

**She never knew exactly how she managed through them and out of the house.**

_Hunter _Quinn growled to himselfmomentarily letting his mental guard down.

_Quinn?_ As asked him, _what's wrong with you it sounds like you care about the human? _

_Nothing._ Quinn growled at him _and it seems as if you care for Mary-Lynette_ Quinn pushed putting all his force behind it. Ash left his mind and Quinn's mental wall was put backup.

Ash scowled at him and shook his head.

**The whole night was like one long blurred nightmare.**

**Because Aunt Corinne didn't get out. When fire trucks came with their sirens and their flashing lights, it was already too late.**

**And even though Rashel knew **_**he**_** had set the fire- the vampire- the police didn't believe her. They didn't understand why he had to kill her.**

**In the morning they took her to a foster home, which would be the first of many. The people there were nice, but Rashel wouldn't let them hold her or comfort her.**

**She already knew what she had to do**

And Rashel did what she intended to do.

**If she was going to survive, she had to make herself strong and hard and strong. She couldn't care about anybody else, or trust anybody, or rely anybody. Nobody could protect her. Not even Mommy had been able to do that.**

**She had to protect herself she had to learn to fight.**

And Rashel had she had become one of the most skilled vampire hunters out there.

Some of the kids stared at her eyes filled with pity.

Jez took a breath "Who wants to read now?"

James came and took the book from Jez, then settled back next to Poppy.

* * *

There it is please tell me what you think


	6. The Cosen C3

**Hey Iknow its been a while but I had a case of slacker syndrome and I have a school project coming up thats gonna take all March to do! UGH! I'll up date after i finish that.**

**Anyway on to the story tallyho**

**I own nothing by... uh... LJ Smith**

* * *

**God, it stank**

That first sentence seemed to ease the tension in the room because everyone busted out laughing.

Once the laughter had died down and James caught his breath he started reading again.

**Rashel Jordan had seen a lot of vampire liars in her seventeen years, but this was probably the most disgusting. She held her breath as she stirred the nest of tattered clothes with the toe of one boot. She could read the story of this collection of garbage as easily as if the inhabitant had written out a full confession, sighed it, and posted it on the wall.**

_Almost like an archeologist reading the story of the discoveries they find._ Hannah thought.

**One vampire. A rouge, an outcast who lived on the fringe of both the human world and the Night World.**

Some of the Night People curled their lip at the rouge vampire

**He probably moved to a new city every few weeks to avoid getting caught. And he undoubtedly looked like any other homeless guy, except that none of the human homeless would be hanging around a Boston dock on a Tuesday night in early March. **

**He brings his victims here, Rashel thought. The pier's deserted, its private, he can take his time with them. And he can't resist keeping a few trophies.**

"It's vampires like that, that give us a bad name." James said looking up from the book.

"I've seen some of the worst kinds of vampires, but maybe not all of them are bad." Rashel said quietly. This was strange her beliefs had always been that all Night Worlders needed to be destroyed, yet sitting in this spell bound house with Night People that didn't seem so bad, though she wouldn't put it over some of them to change their viewpoints over humans just yet, her beliefs were changing not gone yet just shifting and she could tell the others way of thinking was starting to, too. Starting with the made vampire next to her.

James nodded and went back to reading.

**Her foot stirred them gently. A pink-and-blue knit baby jacket, a plaid sash** **from a school uniform, a Spiderman tennis shoe. All ****bloodstained. All very small. **

The girls sucked in a breath. Poppy's and Mary-Lynette's eyes filled.

"Who is this Spiderman" Delos asked his third question.

Jez rubbed her temples "Maggie were putting you in charge of his questions" she said

"Uh, alright" Maggie agreed, the she started to tell Delos of the fictional superhero.

**There had been a rash of missing children lately. The Boston police would never discover were they had gone-but now Rashel ****knew. She felt her lips draw back slightly from her teeth in something that wasn't really a smile.**

**She was aware of everything around her: the soft splash of the water against the wooden pier, the rank coppery smell that was almost a taste, the darkness of the night that was lit by only a half moon.**

**Even the light moisture of the cold breeze against her skin.**

_Good instincts, _Keller thought, _to good to be purely human._ As she looked at Rashel, she saw how much the looked alike, miner differences separated the fact that they almost looked identical. Her eyes widened, and she felt other eyes on her Keller turned, her older self was watching her look at Rashel. **Keller** smiled at her younger self and turned back to listen. Keller shook her head and resumed listing.

_To bad I can't tell her,_ **Keller **thought to herself.

**She was aware of it without being preoccupied with it-and when the tiny scratch sounded above her, she moved as smoothly and gracefully as of she were taking her turn in a dance.**

**She pivoted onher left foot, drawing her **_**bokken **_**in the same motion, and without a break the movement, she stabbed straight into the vampires heart.**

Rashel gained some wide-eyed stares.

_She's great_ thought Jez, who wasn't a run of the hill vampire hunter either.

_Interesting, _Quinn thought_, she is a remarkable fighter_

"And I thought vampire hunters didn't exist" Rowan said.

Rashel raised an eyebrow, "Why is that," she asked.

"We live on an island." Kestrel said " we don't get much information on the real world, but" Kestrel smiled "we know more about it than he does" she said pointing to Delos, who was asking Maggie something else.

Rashel nodded

**She drove the blow from her hips, exhaling in a hiss as she did it, putting all her strength behind it.**

"**Gotta be faster than that," she said**

**The vampire, skewered like a hot dog, waved his arms and gibbered. He was dressed I filthy clothing and his hair was a bushy tangle. His eyes were wide, full of surprise and hatred, shining as silver as animal's in the faint light. **

**His teeth weren't so much fangs as tusks: fully extended they reached almost to his chin.**

"Weird" Poppy said

Some of the other nodded

"**I know," Rashel said "You really, really wanted to kill me. Life's tough isn't it?"**

The teens snickered.

"No mercy." Said Quinn. It wasn't a question.

"None to those who don't deserve it" Rashel answered.

**The vampire snarled one more time and then the silver went out of his eyes, leaving only the look of astonishment. His body ****stiffened and slumped backward. It lay still on the ground.**

**Grimacing, Rashel pulled her wooden sword out of the chest-**

"Why do you have a wooden sword," Gillian asked.

"Wood is one of the few things that can kill a vampire," Quinn said.

"Great why don't you tell them what can hurt us," Morgead said sarcastically.

"Its not like they won't find out" Quinn shot back.

While the two shot glares at each other James went on reading.

**She started to wipe the blade on the vampire's pants, then hesitated, peering at them more closely. Yes, they were defiantly ****little crawly things. And the blankets were just as repulsive.**

**Oh, well use your own jeans.**

**It won't be the first time.**

**She carefully wiped the **_**bokken**_** clean. It was two and a half feet long and just slightly, gracefully curved, with a narrow, sharp angled tip. Designed to penetrate a body efficiently as possible-if that body was susceptible to wood.**

"That's not something you want to mess with," Galen said. The teens turned to him they had forgotten he was in the room.

"Definitely not" Jez agreed, she was scanning Rashel wondering who this girl could be.

"It be best to remember that if you ever try to fight her," Rowan said glancing about the room.

**The wood slipped back into its sheath with a papery whisper. Then Rashel glanced at the body again.**

**Mr. Vampire going mummified. His skin was now yellow and tough; his staring eyes were dried up, his lips shrunken, his tusks collapsed.**

"Gross," Poppy said. Then glanced at James

"Sorry" she said

"Its okay it's what happens when we die" he said, smiled, then went on reading.

**Rashel bent over him, reaching into her back pocket. What she pulled out looked like the snapped off end of a bamboo backscratcher- which it was exactly what it was.**

**Very precisely, Rashel drew the five lacquered fingers** **the vampire's forehead. On the yellow skin five brown marks appeared, ****like the marks of a cat's claws. Vampire skin is easy to mark after death**

_The Cat!_ Rang through Quinn's head, he had heard of marks like that appearing on dead vampires around different states they symbolized the mark of The Cat. He glanced at the girl sitting next to him he knew she was a vampire hunter but not _the_ vampire hunter. He hoped the others wouldn't find out or a fight would break loose.

But Jez knew she had heard of The Cat no wonder she knew how to fight, Jez thought.

"Why did you mark the vampire," Gillian asked.

"She-" Quinn turned a cold gaze on Jez and she shut up.

"Its just something I've done since I killed my first vampire" Rashel said cautiously, she looked at Quinn and Jez something seemed to be passing between them.

"**This kitten has claws," she murmured. It was a ritual sentence; she'd repeated it ever since the night she killed her first vampire at the age of twelve.**

Eyes widened around the room but no said anything.

**In memory of her herself at age five, and all the innocence she'd lost. She'd never be a helpless kitten again. **

"I don't think you were ever helpless," Theirry said, "You were able to scare and run off Hunter Redfern that's no small feat"

Rashel didn't seem convinced she hadn't been able to help Timmy or her mother.

**Besides, it was a little joke.**

**Vampires… bats. Herself… a cat. Anybody who'd grown up with Batman or Catwoman would get it.**

There was no snickering this time only full out laughing.

"You have an interesting imagination when you're hunting" Keller said

"Well its true Batman and Catwoman were always corralling." Mark said. Jade looked at him funny and he answered her questions about the super heroes.

"Two races always colliding," Quinn said. Rashel stared at him, he turned to her and something in her stomach turned, his eyes were black and bottomless, also they held something she couldn't pinpoint. Rashel looked away.

**Well. All done. Whistling softly, she rolled the body over and over with her foot to the end of the pier. She didn't feel like carting the mummy all the way to the fens, the salt marshes where bodies were traditionally left in Boston. With a mental apology to everybody who was trying to clean up the harbor, she gave the corpse a final** **push and listened for the splash.**

**She was still whistling as she emerged from the pier on to the street. **_**Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go…**_

"You must have watched a lot of Disney when you were little," Hannah commented.

Rashel just nodded.

**She was in a very good mood. The only disappointment was the constant one, that it hadn't been **_**the**_** vampire, the one she'd ****been looking for ever since she was five years old. It had been a rouge, all right- a depraved monster who killed human kids foolishly close to human habitations. But it hadn't been **_**the**_** rogue.**

**Rashel would never forget his face **_**his **_**face. And she knew that someday she would see it again.**

_And now that I know who it is I'm going to find hi,_ Rashel thought to herself.

**Meanwhile, there was nothing to do but ****shish-kebab as many of the parasites as possible.**

"Parasite?" Quinn asked, he looked almost hurt.

"You feed off other peoples blood" Rashel answered, for some reason she felt bad about the nicknames vampire hunters used, but the feeling was squelched "You call us vermin" she stated.

Quinn didn't answer, he didn't want to answer her, although she was right.

"Okay," James said awkwardly, Poppy was looking at him wondering if he thought of her that way, as vermin.

James read her mind and shook his head, Poppy smiled.

**She scanned the streets as she walked, alert for any sign of Night People. All she saw were quit brick buildings**

"Well I don't think they would be talking" Morgead muttered under his breath

**And streetlights shining pale gold.**

**And that was a shame, because she was in terrific form tonight; she could feel it. She was every blood sucking leech's worst ****enemy.**

_Is that true._ Ash thought sarcastically

_Yes_. Quinn answered him braking into Ash's barrier for a moment. The younger vampire looked startled. Quinn smirked.

**She could stake six of them before breakfast and still be fresh for chemistry first period Wassaguscus High school**

Jez snorted "Is that really the name?" she asked

Rashel sighed "Sadly, yes"

**Rashel stopped suddenly, absentmindedly melting into the shadow as a police car cruised silently down the cross street head. I know, she thought. I'll go see what the Lances are up too.**

Uh, oh, Rashel thought. The Lancers were a vampire-hunting organization; Rashel glanced around the room the Night Worlders were watching James read, she didn't want to expose who the Lancers were or where they were to any of the Night People in the room.

"Who are the Lancers" Hannah asked

"No one" Rashel said. She got some strange looks from irritation to confusion.

**If anybody knew where vampires are, they do**

"No one, huh" Ash said

"Shut up" Rashel growled, she was reaching for her _bokken_ to try and slice the book in half, even if was her future.

**Keller** appeared in front of her with in human speed "I wouldn't try that, the books have wards on them they're indestructible try it and who knows what could happen." It closed her throat to talk to her sister like that but she didn't want Rashel doing anything she would regret.

Well that stopped any plans of destroying the books, she could try to hit the vampire but right now there were to many by standers and other Night People trapped in the house of one was killed they would never get out.

Rashel saw James had stopped reading and everyone was staring, Rashel didn't like being the center of attention she slide the sword back in its sheath and sat back. **Keller** went back to were her and** Galen** were sitting. James shook his head and went back to reading

**She headed for the North End. Half an hour later she was standing in front of a brownstone apartment building, ringing the buzzer.**

"**Who's there?"**

**Instead of answering, Rashel said, "The night has a thousand eyes."**

"**And the day only one," came the reply from the intercom.**

_Great it even mentions the codes to get in,_ Rashel fumed at the book.

"**Hey there, girl. Come on up." **

**Inside Rashel climbed a dark and narrow to a scarred wooden door. There was a peephole in the door. Rashel faced it squarely, then pulling off the scarf she'd been wearing, It was black, silky, and very long. She wore it wrapped around her like a veil, so that only her eyes showed, and even they were in shadow.**

**She shook out her hair. Knowing that the person on the other side could see. A tall girl, dressed like a ninja, all in black, with black hair falling loose around her shoulders, and green eyes blazing. She hadn't changed much since she was five except in height. Right now she made a barbaric face at the peephole and heard the sound of laughter behind the door as bolts were drawn.**

**She waited until the door was shut behind her again before she said, "Hi, Elliot."**

**Elliot was a few years older than she was, and thin, with intense eyes, and little shiny glasses that were always slipping off his nose. Some people would have dismissed him as a geek. But Rashel had once seen him stand up to two werewolves while she got a human girl out the window, and she knew he practically single handedly started the Lancers- one of the most successful organizations of vampire hunters on the east coast.**

"He could be a dangerous enemy," Theirry muttered.

"Don' think about hurting him, leech," Rashel snapped.

Theirry held up his hands, as if to surrender "I wouldn't think about it. I simply meant that if this Eliot started such a successful organization, he could be a threat to the Night World not to mention he actually knows about the Night World. Punishment is death he posses a threat to himself for just knowing" Theirry retorted.

Rashel fixed him with a cold glare then turned for James to finish.

"**What's up, Rashel? It's been a while."**

"**I've been busy.** **But now I'm bored. I came to see if you guys had anything going." As Rashel spoke, she was looking at the other people in the room: A brown haired girl was kneeling, loading objects from boxes into a dark green backpack. Another girl and a boy were sitting on the couch. Rashel recognized the boy from other Lancers meetings, but neither of the girls were familiar.**

"**Lucky you," Elliot said. "This is Vicky, my new second in command." He nodded at the girl on the floor. "She just moved to Boston; she was leader of a group on the south shore. And tonight she's taking a little expedition out to some warehouse in Mission Hill. We got a lead that there's been some activity out there."**

"**What kind of activity? Leeches, puppies?**

Some of the Night Teens snickered at the were- wolves nickname ignoring the parasite comment.

**Elliot shrugged. "Vampires definitely. Werewolves maybe. There's been a rumor about teenage girls getting kidnapped and stashed somewhere around there.**

_This is a problem,_ Quinn thought,_ they know about the girls._

_**The problem is we**_** don't know exactly were, or why." He tilted his head, his eyes twinkling. **

"**You want to go?"**

"**Isn't anybody going to ask me?" Vicky said, straighting up from her backpack. Her pale blue eyes were fixed on Rashel. "I've **

**never even seen this girl before. She could be one of them"**

"I don't like her" Rashel mumbled, Quinn glanced at her.

**Elliot pushed his glasses higher on his nose. He looked amused. "You wouldn't say that if you knew, Vicky. Rashel's the best."**

"**At what?" **

"**At everything. When you were going to your fancy prep school, she was out in the Chicago slums staking vampires. She's ****been in L.A., New York, New Orleans… even Vegas.**

The Night Worlders glanced at her they wondered how far in Vegas she went or what she knew about it.

"Wow, you've been everywhere" Mark said

Rashel just shrugged.

**She's wiped out more parasites than the rest of us put together." Elliot glanced mischievously at Rashel, then leaned toward Vicky.**

"**Ever heard of the Cat?"**

_Oh, great,_ James thought, he shouldn't have read that part.

Eyes turned to Rashel; some widened others narrowed. Morgead and Ash jumped up and looked ready to fight. Rashel got to her feet grabbing her _bokken_ on the way. Jez was trying to get Morgead to sit back down but he wouldn't listen.

"You're the Cat." Ash said.

"Right "Rashel said watching both vampires for any sign to say if they were about to strike.

"Who's the Cat?" Maggie asked looking warily at the three teens, which were staring each other down.

"The Cat," **Galen** started "is a vampire hunter who is wanted by the Night World for killing so many vampires, she the best."** Galen** knew he and **Keller** should step in like before but this was something that would help this pair, Rashel and Quinn, of young soulmates. To see what they would do now, with the principle just taking effect, stand by or help?

A hushed silence fell over the room the kids sitting down watched vampire and vampire hunter watch each other to see who would strike first, knowing it wouldn't do much to get involved. Jez was still trying to get Morgead down, Mary-Lynette was trying to stop Ash, Eric and Thea sat looking at this disapprovingly, James shook his head Poppy stared glad her brother wasn't there he would be acting as a psychiatrists, Theirry was getting up about to stop this when **Keller** caught his attention she slightly shook her head he sat back muscles till tense Hannah wasn't sure how to intervene, Gillian let her hair fall in front of her face again David looked down at her, Delos was watching interested while Maggie wanted this to stop, Quinn looked from Ash to Morgead watching and waiting, the three sisters watched their brother, Mark was trying to assist Mary-Lynette, Keller and was ready to take shape when ready, Galen was wondering if he should try to take a shape to help.

This was getting hazardous.

The two vampires never looked away from Rashel but she knew they were communicating telepathically then the deadly silence was broken. Eyes went silver, fangs came out, and they lunged Rashel moved instinctively heading toward Ash she put her sword up not cutting just blocking holding this position with an angry vampire on the other side. She was prepared to throw him back and handle Morgead but his attack never came, confused Rashel glanced behind her there was Morgead angry as ever with Quinn holding him by the shoulders keeping him away from Rashel. She was still confused but a little glad for the help, but she didn't need his help.

"I don't need your help," she said through gritted teeth.

"To bad" Quinn argued.

Rashel scowled then swung the sword forward putting all her weight into, like baseball player, it and knocked Ash back. This was enough proof the principle was working, **Galen** looked at Theirry, Theirry nodded and jumped up as Ash backed onto the couch Theirry moved behind it and clamped onto Ash shoulders and pushed him back into a sitting position holding the struggling vampire down. Quinn threw Morgead back with somewhat ease Jez grabbed him and held him still on the couch.

"Are you crazy?" Jez hissed at him

"That's enough" Quinn almost yelled, "That was irrational and just idiotic!"

"You could have hurt any one in this room" **Keller** chided.

The two vampires glared venomously, eyes still silver.

"She's the Cat" Morgead argued, " She killed lots of us and the Night World is looking for her. How can you just let her stand there?" pointing to Rashel, near the middle of the floor.

"Your impatient!" **Keller** snapped "We've killed her people too," she admitted knowing they wouldn't like but said it anyway we need her you'll see soon" her anger seemed to be fading, and then her face-hardened, again " If you pay attention you two will actually learn something while we're reading!"

The two vampires stopped struggling Theirry and Jez let go keeping a trained eye on the two. And the two kept an eye on Rashel.

Rashel and Quinn were sitting back down when there shoulders hit each other stringer than before, and Rashel felt another jolt not unpleasant just…different. But that wasn't the strange part her mind was somewhere else a dark, cold place with some panic she realized it was Quinn's mind. With another shock she realized he was in her mind too.

She knew him what he was,

"_What's happing?" _she questioned not happy about being in the vampires head.

"_I don't know,"_ he growled, not to happy with the arrangement either but amazed at the same time. And Rashel could feel that. They stayed like that not looking at each other and their minds open, not sure how to close the link.

James picked up the book again.

Hostility still showed clearly in the room.

He took a breath and read.

That was the only thing that closed the link between the two minds.

The severed link was almost saddening to the two.

**Vicky's head snapped up. She stared at Rashel. "The Cat? The one all Night People are afraid of?**

Morgead and Ash rolled their eyes,_ sure_, they thought

**The one they're offering a reward for? The one who leaves a mark-"**

**Rashel shot Elliot a warning look. "Never mind," she said. She wasn't sure she trusted these new people. Vicky was right about one thing: you couldn't be too careful.**

**And she didn't like Vicky much, but she could hardly turn down such a good opportunity for vampire hunting.**

"Of course you couldn't" Ash said spitefully.

Well he got smacked and electrocuted.** (a/n not a hard guess as to who hit him) **The two jumped again and Gillian turned to look at them, they looked away guilty.

**Not tonight, when she was in such terrific form. **

"**I'll go with you- if you'll have me," she said**

**Vicky's pale blue eyes bored into Rashel a moment, then she nodded. "Just remember I'm in charge.**

"I don't like her" Maggie said, thinking of her brothers new girl friend, Sylvia.

Many nodded in agreement.

"**Sure," Rashel murmured. She could see Elliot's grin out of the corner of her eye. **

"**You know Steve and that's Nyala." Elliot indicated the boy and girl on the couch. Steve had blond hair, muscular shoulders, and a steady expression; Nyala had skin like cocoa and a far away look in her eyes. as if she were sleepwalking. "Nyala's new. She just lost her sister a month ago," Elliot added in a gentle voice. He didn't need to say **_**how**_** the sister had been lost.**

**Rashel nodded at the girl. She sympathized. There was nothing like the shock of first discovering the Night World, when you realized that things like vampires, werewolves, and witches were real, and that they were **_**everywhere**_**, joined in one giant secret organization. That anybody could be one, and you'd never know until it was too late.**

"**Everybody ready? Then lets go." Vicky said, and Steve and Nyala got up. Elliot showed them the door.**

"**Good luck," he said.**

**Outside, Vicky led the way to a dark blue car with mud strategically caked on the license plates.**

"**We'll drive to the warehouse area," she said.**

**Rashel was relived. She was used to walking the city streets at night without being seen-important when you're carrying a rather unconcealable sword-**

"I could imagine it" Quinn said dryly

Rashel rolled her eyes

**But she wasn't sure if these other three could manage. It took practice.**

"And you've had plenty, haven't you." Morgead said, still angry. Jez clamped a hand over his mouth, the room echoed with the smack.

**The drive was silent except for the mummer of Steve's voice occasionally helping Vicky with directions. They passed through respectable neighborhoods and venerable areas with handsome old buildings until they got to a street** **where everything changed** **suddenly. All at once, as if they had crossed some invisible dividing line, the gutters were full of soggy trash and the fences were toped with razor wire. The buildings were government housing projects, dark warehouses or roudy bars.**

"Nice place" David said sarcastically, Gillian looked up at him, he looked down at her, she turned away.

**Vicky pulled into a parking lot and stopped the car away from the security lights. Then she led them through knee-length dead weeds of a vacant lot to a street that was poorly lighted and utterly silent. "This is the observation post," Vicky whispered, as they reached a squat brick building, a part of the housing project that had been abandoned. Following her they zigzagged through debris and scrap metal to get to a side door, and then climbed a dark staircase covered with graffiti to the third floor. Their flashlights provided the only illumination.**

"**Nice place," Nyala whispered, looking around.**

The teens grinned and looked at David. "That's just freaky," he said. Gillian nodded.

"It really kind of is," she said. The others agreed.

**She had never seen anything like it before. **

"**Don't you think maybe-there may be other people here besides vampires?"**

**Steve gave her a reassuring pat. "No, its okay."**

"**Yeah, it looks even the junkies have abandoned it," Rashel said, grimly amused.**

"**You could see the whole street from the window," Vicky put in shortly. "Elliot and I were here yesterday. Watching those warehouses across the street. And last night we saw a guy at the end of the street who looked a lot like a vampire. You know the signs."**

**Nyala opened her mouth to as if to say she didn't know the signs, but Rashel was already speaking.**

"**Did you test him?" **

"**We didn't want to get that close. We'll do it tonight if he shows up again."**

"**How do you test them?" Nyala asked.**

**Vicky didn't answer. She and Steve had pushed aside a couple of rat chewed mattresses and were unloading the bags and backpacks they brought.**

**Rashel said, "One way is to shine a flashlight in their eyes. Usually you get eyeshine back- like an animal's"**

The vampires looked at Rashel

"Were not all like animals," Theirry said

"Some of us are good" James stated, not looking at his cousin.

"Well" Rashel started "From what I've seen there are few vampires that actually can be good. Others are like the ones that killed my mother

"True but some of us are good" Theirry tried again.

Rashel looked away before she would have denied every thing Theirry said but things were changing sense being in this room, the starting process was over everyone was changing. Some were still in denial about it but they knew it was happening.

Whether they want it to or not.

"**There are other ways, too," Vicky said, setting the things she was unloading on the floor. There were ski masks, knives made of both metal and would, and a number of stakes of various sizes, and a mallet.**

"Why a ski mask?" Hannah asked with a confused expression

"You can't let the vampire know who you are or the Night World can track you down and inforce the punishment." Rashel said solemnly

"Oh" said Hannah meekly.

**Steve added two clubs made of white oak to the pile.**

"**Wood hurts them more than metal," Vicky said to Nyala. "If you cut them with a steel knife they heal right before your eyes- but cut them with wood and they keep bleeding."**

**Rashel didn't quite like the way she said it. And she didn't like the last thing Vicky was pulling out of her backpack. It was a wooden device that looked a bit like a miniature stock. Two hinged blocks of wood that fit snugly around a person's wrists and closed with a lock.**

"**Vampire handcuffs," Vicky said proudly, seeing her look.**

The vampires looked appalled

"Who would create something like that?" Jez asked, she as a vampire hunter herself had seen ways of trapping a vampire but nothing like that.

Rashel shook her head "Apparently Vicky." And in an undertone she added, "and she seems to be the type that would make something like that."

Quinn heard and had to hide a grin.

"Well" Quinn said recovering from the grin that had threatened to spread across his face "On the South coast those have been reported to be seen on vampires after they had been tortured"

Gasps could be heard around the room.

"That's horrible" Mary-Lynette said

Quinn shrugged "But its hunt or be hunted" he said with no emotion.

"That's not the way it should be" Poppy disagreed

Quinn just shrugged again and on that happy note James started reading

"**Made of white oak. Guaranteed to hold any parasite. I brought them from down south.**

"**But hold them from what? And what do you need all those little knives and stakes for? It would take hours to kill a vampire ****with those."**

**Vicky smiled fiercely. "I know."**

**Oh. Rashel's heart seemed to thump then sink, and she looked away to control her reaction. She understood what Vicky had in ****mind now.**

**Torture.**

"That's barbaric" Thea said

And Rashel agreed though she didn't voice it having the enemy not attacking while you slowly injured them wasn't honorable.

"**A quick death is to good for them," Vicky said, still smiling. "They deserve to suffer- the way they make our people suffer." **

James had to keep his voice level reading this. He knew it was true though most vampires did hurt the humans.

"**Besides, we might get some information. We need to know where they're keeping the girls they kidnap, and what they're doing to them."**

"Good luck with that" Ash said, it was the first time he'd spoken since the showdown.

"**Vicky," Rashel spoke earnestly. "Its practically impossible to make vampires talk. They're stubborn. When they're hurt they just get angry- like animals"**

**Vicky smirked. "I've made some talk. It just depends what you do, and how long you make it last. Anyway there's no harm in ****trying"**

"What's wrong with her?" Maggie asked shaking her head

"I'm not sure" Rashel said " But what ever made her get into the vampire hunting business it must have been hard."

"No offence," Poppy said, " But your entrance in to vampire hunting wasn't to nice either, your mother was killed in front of you."

"True, but I found honorable teachers who taught me about vampire hunting." She saw the looks the vampires were giving her and said, " Well they taught me how to fight honorably"

"And that, torture, isn't right" There her thoughts were out in the open she never thought she would be telling Night People about how she fights and were she learned it. But she also never thought she would be in a book with Quinn, someone she hoped she'd never meet. Maybe that thought was changing too?

"**Does Elliot know about this?"**

**Vicky lifted a shoulder defensively. "Elliot lets me do things my way. I don't' have to tell him every little detail. I was a leader my self, you know."**

**Helplessly, Rashel looked at Nyala and Steve. **

**And saw that for the first time Nyala's eyes had lost their sleepwalking expression. Now she looked awake- and savagely glad.**

"**Yes," she said. " We should try to make the vampire talk. And if he suffers- well, my sister suffered. When I found her, she was almost dead but she could still talk. She told me what it felt like, having all the blood drained out of her body while she was still conscious. She said it hurt. She said…" Nyala stopped, swallowed, and looked at Vicky. **

"**I want to help do it," she said thickly.**

**Steve didn't say anything, but then from what Rashel knew of him, that was typical. He was a guy of few words. Anyway, he didn't protest.**

**Rashel felt odd, as if she were seeing the very worst of herself reflected in a mirror. It made her…ashamed. It left her shaken.**

**But who am I to judge? She thought, turning away. It's true that the parasites are evil, all of them. The whole race needs to be whipped out. **

**And Vicky's right, why should they have a clean death, when they usually don't give their victims one? Nyala deserves to avenge her sister.**

At least that's what I used to think, Rashel thought grimacing.

"**Unless you object or something," Vicky said heavily, and Rashel could feel those pale blue eyes in her. "Unless you're some kind of vampire sympathizer."**

**Rashel might have laughed at that, but she wasn't in a laughing mood. She took a breath, then said without turning around, ****"It's your show. I agreed that you were in charge."**

"**Good," Vicky said, and returned to her work.**

**But the sick feeling I the pit of Rashel's stomach didn't go away. She almost hoped the vampire wouldn't show.**

"That's it" James said, " who wants to read know?"

"I will" Mary-Lynette said retrieving the book from James. When she sat back down Ash asked

"Why would you want to read?" Ash asked.

"Because I'm curious and now I have something to smack you with," she replied sweetly.

The room was full of snickers.

Once that was over Mary-Lynette turned to the next chapter.

* * *

Well there it is Ill try to post after the project untill then please review i did my best


	7. I'm Sorry

Hi Guys. No I'm not dead and the story will continue! I'm so so so sorry though. But this isn't a new chapter. That's the good news.

But my computer started acting strange around April or May and wouldn't let me access the enter net and right after I figured out how to solve that problem my computer crashed! T-T. Everything's been erased and needs to be retyped. The only way I'm even able to tell ya'll this is I'm using my grandparents computer. So yeah I'll work on that and update when its finished.

Again I'm really sorry! But please bear with me though. *puppy eyes*


	8. The Chosen C4

Heeyy! Miss me? Anyway here is the long a waited chapter! Again sorry for the delay but I've been struggling to writing this and 9th grade kicking my butt, but hopefully updates will be quicker than this one was. Oh and there's a poll on my profile for the next book to be read.

**Enjoy I tried to make it worth the wait. Review and don't forget to vote. Oh, er, I don't own NW, or Coke.**

* * *

Quinn was cold

Moregad snorted and flashed a cruel smile at Quinn. "I didn't know you could get cold, Quinny."

The older vampire just glared through the other teen, "I don't."

"But then how-" Quinn cut Poppy off.

"Externally no. It's impossible. Internally yes." He knew where his train of thought was heading in the book. Quinn did not like it.

**Not physically, of course. That was impossible. The icy March air had no effect on him; his body was imperious to little things like weather.**

"Yeeeeah," Maggie drawled sarcastically. "Because the weather is such a small thing."

"To a vampire, yes." Ash said dryly.

Mary-Lynette caught the smug tone hidden under his dry one, again that strange urge to smack him resurfaced.

**No, this cold was inside him.**

**He stood looking at the bay and the thriving city across it. Boston by starlight.**

Mar-Lynette sighed contentedly at the mention of the stars. Ash took a sideways glance at the contented look on the girl's face.

**It had taken him a long time to come back to Boston after…the change.**

Rashel winced internally. _I imagine it would._ She thought sadly. But the thought also disgusted her. Vampires, changing innocent humans for who knows what. Going back to where it happened, though, that took courage. Rashel scowled, she was going soft. Who was she kidding ever since she'd been sitting next to Quinn she had been soft and only getting softer. Parasite.

**He'd lived there once, when he'd been human. But in those days Boston was nothing but three hills, one beacon, and a handful of houses with thatched roofs. **

**The place where he was standing now had been a clean beach surrounded by salt meadows and dense forest.**

**The year had been 1639.**

"David whistled. He grinned at the vamp. "Your old."

Against his will a smile tugged at the corner of his lips but he used all his force to push it down. "Very, almost five hundred. But I'm pretty sure Thierry is older" he turned his grin into one of mischief. "When were you turned again Thierry the Ice Age?"

"I believe it was the Stone Age." Thierry said thoughtfully, tapping his lips with his pointer finger like he was having a hard time actually remembering. Hannah gasped quietly.

Rashel's eyebrows flew up and she took a quick peek at the vampire next to her. It was amazing how young vampires could seem but one look in their eyes told anyone they had seen far too much for their young looks. Quinn's were cold and bottomless; monsters lurked in the black holes. Monsters of what he'd seen and what he'd done. They were evil monsters.

**Boston had grown since then, but Quinn hadn't. He was still eighteen, still the young man who'd loved the sunny pastures and the clear blue water of the wilderness. Who had lived simply, feeling grateful when there was enough food for supper on his mother's table, and who had dreamed of someday having his own fishing schooner**

"What's a fishing schooner?" Jade asked shifting between her sisters.

Quinn bared his teeth, "Didn't they teach you anything on the island? A fishing schooner is a two or more mast ship used, as you can guess, for fishing back then at least."

"You don't have to be mean." Mark glared at the older teen.

Morgead threw back his head and howled. "Quinn? Mean? That's an understatement."

Quinn leered at him, growling silently.

**And marrying pretty Dove Redfern.**

Rashel felt foreign emotions swarm around in her, painfully and miserably. She tried to shake them off.

**That was how it had all started, with Dove. Pretty Dove and her soft brown hair…sweet Dove**

_If he says one more thing about her I'm going to kill him. _Rashel mentally threatened the other teen.

Quinn looked at Rashel who was glaring at him. He frowned. Quinn was sure he hadn't done anything that would make her mad, besides existing of course. He hoped he hadn't made her mad about thinking about Dove. Why was he worried if he made her mad or not?

Quinn sighed; he might as well stop asking himself useless questions he already knew the answer to. He ran a hand through his black hair in frustration, he'd never believed in the Soulmate Principle but there was no denying it now that his soulmate sat next to him on this very couch glaring at him through narrowed slits.

**Who had a secret a simple boy like Quinn could never have imagined.**

**Well. Quinn felt his lip curl. That was all in the past. Dove had been dead for centuries, and if her screams still haunted him every night, no one knew but himself.**

_Not any more._ He thought bitterly.

Most of the girl's turned to him with pity in their eyes. Kestrel's eyes just said _get over it._

Rashel just continued giving him a steely gaze; if looks could kill Quinn was pretty sure even a vampire would be dead.

"Crushing on our aunt, Quinny?" Ash asked sweetly.

"If I smack him again will anyone care?" Mary-Lynette asked.

No one raised any objections.

**Because he might not be any older then he had been in the days of the colonies, but he had learned a few tricks. Like how to wrap ice around his heart so that nothing in the world could hurt him. And how to put ice in his gaze, so that whoever looked into his black eyes saw only an endless glacial dark. He'd gotten very good at that. Some people actually went pale and backed away when he turned his on them.**

**The tricks had been working for years, allowing him not to just survive as a vampire, but to be brilliantly successful at it. He was Quinn, pitiless as a snake, whose blood ran like ice water, who's soft voice pronounced doom on anybody who got in his way. Quinn, the essence of darkness, who struck fear into the hearts of humans and Night People alike.**

"Now you see why mean was an understatement." Morgead muttered.

**And just at that moment, he was tired.**

**Tired and cold. There was a kind of bleakness inside him, like winter that would never change to spring.**

"How sad." Poppy whispered and scooted closer to James. James raised his arm like he was about to wrap it around her waist, and Poppy held her breath with anticipation, but his arm swiftly went back down.

Poppy pouted.

Rashel let her eyes open back up into their normal size, her glaring ceased for the moment. Her stomach churned at thought of his never ending winter.

**He had no idea what to do about it- although it had occurred to him that if he were to jump into the bay and let those dark waters close over his head and then _stay _down there for a few day without feeding… well, all his problems would be solved, wouldn't they?**

"Quinn! Suicide's not the answer!" Jade yelped.

"Don't you think I know that?" Quinn growled. "Its just a thought. I'm not ready to die yet."

**But that was ridiculous. He was Quinn.**

"Yes Quinn we know who you are." Delos rolled his yellow eyes. His face turned red after that little comment and the others could guess from Quinn's smug face Delos had been on the receiving mind of some torturous thoughts.

**Nothing could touch him. The bleak feeling would go away eventually. **

**He pulled himself out of his reverie, turning away from the shimmering blackness of the bay. Maybe he should go to the warehouse in Mission Hill, check on its in habitants.**

_There goes one more secret. _He fumed internally but his heart wasn't in the anger. He hated gong to that club pretending to flirt, pretend to actually take interest in one of those humans. He hated the way their eyes watch him in that stupid dreamy state as he described darkness for them. The thoughts and fantasies they all had, loud and clear for any telepath, when he 'chose' one of them. The ordeal was driving him mad.

"What inhabitants?" Rashel spoke through gritted teeth.

"Its not important." He turned away from the black-haired girl.

Rashel scowled and rubbed her temples; this whole situation was giving her a headache.

**He needed something to _do, _to keep him from thinking.**

**Quinn smiled, knowing it was a smile to frighten children. He set off for Boston. **

**Rashel sat by the window, but not the way ordinary people sit. She was kneeling in a sort of crouch, weight resting on her left leg, right leg bent and pointing forward. It was a position that allowed swift and unrestricted movement in any direction. Her bokken was beside her; she could spring and draw at a second's notice.**

**The abandoned building was quite. Steve and Vicky were outside, scouting the street. Nyala seemed lost in her own thoughts.**

**Suddenly Nyala reached out and touched the bokken's sheath. "What's this?"**

"**Hm? Oh, it's a kind of Japanese sword. They use wooden swords for fencing practice because steel would be too dangerous. But it can actually be lethal even to humans. It's weighted and balanced just like a steel sword." She pulled put the sword out if the sheath and turned the flashlight on it so Nyala see the satiny green-black wood.**

**Nyala drew in her breath and touched the graceful curve slightly. "Its beautiful."**

"**Its made of lignu, vitea: the Wood of Life. That's the hardest and heaviest wood there is- it's as dense as iron. I had it carved specially, just for me."**

"**And you use it to kill vampires?"**

"**Yes."**

"**And you've killed a lot?"**

"**Yes." Rashel slid the sword back into its sheath.**

"**Good," Nyala said with a throb in her voice. She turned to stare at the street. She had a small queenly head, with hair piled on back like Nefertit's crown. When she turned back to Rashel, her voice was quite. "How did get into all this in the first place?" I mean, you seem to know so much. How did you learn it all?"**

**Rashel laughed. "Bit by bit," she said briefly. She didn't like to talk about it. "But I started out like you. I saw one of them kill my mom when I was five. After that, I tried to learn everything I could about vampires, so I could fight them. And I told the story at every foster I lived in, and finally I found some people who believed me. They were vampire hunters. They taught me a lot."**

**Nyala looked ashamed and disgusted. "I'm so stupid- I haven't done anything like that. I wouldn't have even known about the Lancers if Elliot hadn't called me. He saw the article in the paper about my sister and guessed it might have been a vampire killing. But I'd never have found them one my own."**

"**You just haven't had enough time."**

"**No. I think it takes a special kind of person. But now that I know how to fight them, I'm going to do it." Her voice was tight and shaky, and Rashel glanced at her quickly. There was something unstable just under the surface of this girl. **

"Your very perceptive," Keller noted.

Rashel shrugged, "You learn to notice things over time. You need to be able to pick out the Night World people from the humans.

"Mm," Keller sat back into her own thoughts saying nothing more on the subject. She still had her suspicions about Rashel; the little things she did that were mentioned in the book had Keller believing Rashel might not be entirely human.

"**Nobody knows which one of them killed my sister, so I'll get as many of them as I can. I want to-"**

"**Quite!" Rashel hissed the word and put a hand over Nyala's mouth at the same instant. Nyala froze**

**Rashel sat tensely, listening, then got up like a spring uncoiling and put her head out the window. She listened for another moment, then caught up her scarf and veiled her face with practiced movements. "Grab your ski mask and come one."**

"**What is it?"**

"**You're going to get your wish- right now. There's a fight down there. Stay behind me… and don't forget your mask."**

**Nyala didn't need to ask about _that, _she noticed. It was the first thing any vampire hunter learned. If you were recognized and the vampire got away…well; it was all over. The Night People would search until they found you, then strike you when you least expected it.**

**With Nyala behind her, Rashel ran lightly down the stairs and around the street.**

The large group froze as they heard the door bang.

"Just when it was getting good," Maggie sighed.

**Delos **and **Thierry **walked into the room. **Thierry** smiled brightly as but **Delos** looked like walking death. He was paler than normal with dark bags hung under his bright yellow eyes that threatened to close any minute.

"What are you two doing here?" **Galen** asked.

"They're here to take over for us," **Keller **explained as she stood and stretched. "Which is good because I need a long run."

**Delos **plopped heavily into **Galen's** chair as soon as the blond moved away from it. **Thierry** pulled **Galen** aside as he headed for the door, they spoke in quiet whispers for a brief time before **Galen** left with **Keller**, and **Thierry** slid into **Keller's **seat.

"So you're all going to be switching out?" Gillian asked- more like mumbled.

**Thierry** heard her, though. "Yes there is…business that needs to be taken care of in our time. So one of us must be there at all times while the rest are posing as you."

"Speaking of which, what time is it?" Thea asked.

**Thierry** glanced down at his watch. "1:00, why?"

"We've been here for three hours?" Delos cried in disbelief.

Thierry stood and walked over to his older counter part. He whispered something in **Thierry's** ear**. **The future vampire's eyes widened as he nodded his head. "Of course."

**Thierry** then addressed the group, "If any vampires need a, er, drink go through that door." He pointed to the door near the swinging bookcase. "And if anyone else needs a drink the kitchen is through there," **Thierry** pointed to door **Ash** had come out of.

Everyone clambered up and through their respective doors some more eager than others to quench their thirst. Rashel cast a quick glance toward the room the vampires were heading in but it whatever was inside was hidden from her view.

After all the teens had their refreshments (and vampires could control their hunger), Mary-Lynette set down her Coke (A/N Woot!) and picked up the book again to continue reading

**The sounds were coming from a pool of darkness beside one of the warehouses, far from the nearest streetlight. As Rashel reached the place, she could make out the form of Steve and Vicky, their faces masked, their clubs in their hands. They were struggling with another form.**

**_Oh, for God's sake, _Rashel thought, stopping dead.**

**_One_ other form. The two of them, armed with wood lying in ambush, couldn't handle one little vampire by themselves? From the racket, she's thought they must have been surprised by a whole army.**

"Your friends," Eric started, "don't seem very capable of handling themselves."

"At this point I would have to agree with you." Rashel replied sourly.

**But this vampire seemed to be putting up quite a fight-in fact, he was clearly winning. Throwing his attackers around with supernatural strength, just as if they were ordinary humans and not fearless vampire slayers. He seemed to be enjoying it.**

"**We've got to help them!" Nyala hissed in Rashel's ear.**

"**Yeah," Rashel said joylessly. She sighed, "Wait here; I'm going to bonk him on the head."**

Poppy began to giggle.

"What so funny?" James looked down at her.

She giggled again before staring up at him, "I just think its funny Rashel is going to _bonk_ a super powered vampire on the head."

James shook his head but grinned at her childish amusement, thankful that his little secret didn't appear to have changed their friendship…for now. He still wondered, still hoped that he would find the answers to his suspicions in the book that he and, with any luck, Poppy featured in.

**It wasn't quite that easy. Rashel got behind the vampire without any trouble; he was preoccupied with the other two and arrogant enough to be careless. But then she had a problem.**

**Her _bokken, _the honorable sword of a warrior, had one purpose: to deliver a clean blow capable of killing instantly. She couldn't bring herself to whack somebody unconscious with it.**

"How right you are," Quinn mumbled.

"What?" Rashel asked raising a black eyebrow.

"You are right," Quinn spoke louder, "It would not be right for you to whack somebody on the head with an honorable weapon."

"What do you know of honor." She spat.

"More than you think," he looked away.

**It wasn't that she didn't have other weapons. She had plenty- back at home in Marblehead. All the tools of a ninja and some the ninja had never heard of. And she knew some extremely dirty methods of fight. She could break bones and crush tendons; she could peel an enemy's trachea out of his neck with her bare hands or drive his ribs into his lungs with her feet.**

"Remind me never to make you mad." David squirmed in his seat like Rashel had given the threats directly to him.

**But those were desperate measures, to be used as a last resort when her own life was at stake and the opposition was over whelming. She simply couldn't do that to a single enemy when she had the jump on him.**

**Just then the single enemy threw Steve into a wall, where he landed with a muffled 'oof.' Rashel felt sorry for him, but it solved her dilemma. She grabbed the oak club Steve had been holding as it rolled across the concrete. The she circled nimbly as the vampire turned, trying to face her. At that instant Nyala threw herself into the fight, creating a distraction, and Rashel did what she'd said she would. She bonked the vampire on the head, driving the club like a home runner's swing with the force of her hips.**

**The vampire cried out and fell down motionless.**

**Rashel raised the club again, watching him. Then she lowered it, looking at Steve and Vicky. "You guys okay?"**

**Vicky nodded stiffly. She was trying to get her breath. "He surprised us," she said.**

**Rashel didn't answer. She was very unhappy, and her feeling of being in top form tonight had completely evaporated. This had the most undignified fight she'd seen in a while, and…**

…**and it bothered her, the way the vampire cried out as he fell. She couldn't explain why but it had.**

_So it is true,_ Quinn thought. Rashel _was_ his soulmate. Panic erupted silently within him. Rashel could be put to death if this little fact was discovered and the damnable book probably spelled it out point blank to the other Night Worlders in the room. But he had seen Rashel coming out of that room under the staircase with… him. Maybe there was a chance-? No, never again, Quinn would not allow himself to fall in love again.

But… was it already too late?

**Steve picked himself up. "He shouldn't have been able to surprise us," he said. "That was our fault."**

**Rashel glanced at him. It was true. In this business, you were either ready all the time, expecting the unexpected at any moment, or you were dead.**

"**He was just good," Vicky said shortly.**

"Whatever." Maggie rolled her eyes. "She just can't admit defeat can she?"

James chuckled, "Apparently not.

"I wish she would just shut up." Delos grumbled.

"**Come on, let's get him out of here before somebody sees us. There's a cellar in the other building."**

**Rashel took hold of one of the vampire's feet while Steve grabbed his shoulders. He wasn't very big, about Rashel's height and compact. He looked young, about Rashel's age.**

**Which meant nothing, she reminded herself. A parasite could be a thousand and still look young. They gained eternal life from other people's blood.**

"We don't steal eternal life," Thierry stared directly at Rashel trying to explain to her that not all vampires were evil and some of her viewpoints on Night People were wrong. "True, blood keeps us alive many more years than humans but that is not its purpose."

"Then what is? If not for eternal life than what? For pleasure of the kill?" She knew the words were cruel but truly she was not yet ready to throw all of her teachings of vampires out the window. They were parasites, leeches, monsters.

How strongly she was holding on to those injustices beliefs that, as she spoke, were crumbling away.

"To survive. Rashel we did not ask this for ourselves. It is simply our way of life. And did you ever consider the possibility we do not all feed on humans?"

"Are you saying you don't?" She asked sarcastically.

"…No but-"

"You humans are hypocritical." Morgead cut in. "You say we're monster but are you any better than us? You have slaughterhouses; you think the cows don't suffer? Blood is in the meat you get from those cow graveyards, some is still there even after it is cooked. You, well most of you, eat meat to survive. We drink blood for the same reason."

Rashel pressed her lips into a thin line before leaning back on the couch to ponder Morgead's uncharacteristically calm outburst.

Mary-Lynette ended the awkward silence by reading on.

**She and Steve carried their burden down the stairs into a large dank room that smelled of damp rot and mildew. They dropped him on the cold concrete floor and Rashel straightened to ease her back.**

"**Okay. Now lets see what he looks like." Vicky said, and turned her flashlight in him. **

**The vampire looked pale, and his black hair looked even blacker against his white skin. His eyelashes were dark on his cheek. A little blood matted his hair in the back.**

"**I don't think he's the same one Elliot and I saw last night. That one looked bigger," Vicky said.**

**Nyala pressed forward, staring at her very first captive vampire. "What difference does it make? He's one of them, right? Nobody human could have thrown Steve like that. He might even be the one that killed my sister. And he's ours now." She smiled to the unconscious boy on the floor. "Just you wait."**

"I think that girl has some mental problems." Maggie said.

"She's probably in shock." Rowan gave her diagnosis.

"Your most likely right," Thierry nodded. "The discovery of the Night World does that to some people and for her to find out about it in such a…gruesome way cannot be good for her mental health."

Kestrel snorted, "I say she was crazy before she learned about us."

**Steve rubbed his shoulder where it had hit the wall. All he said was "Yeah," but his smile wasn't nice.**

"**I only hope he doesn't die soon," Vicky said examining the pale face critically. "You hit him pretty hard."**

"**He's not going to die," Rashel said. "In fact, he'll probably wake up in a few minutes. And we better hope he's not one of the really powerful telepaths."**

"Your hope is in vain, sweetheart." Ash said.

Mary-Lynette really did hit him with the book this time.

**Nyala looked up sharply, "What?"**

"**Oh- all vampires are telepathic," Rashel said absently. " But there's a big range as to how powerful they are. Most of them can only communicate over a short distance- like within the same house, say. But a few are a lot stronger."**

"**Even if he is strong, it won't matter unless there are other vampires around," Vicky said.**

"Those fools are incompetent," Quinn spoke in his soft voice. "Another vampire doesn't need to be around for a powerful telepath to harm a h-… another creature."He stopped his fumble of the word 'human' figuring it would only make Rashel even angrier. Plus it wasn't just limited to humans that telepathic powers affect. A Night World creature could easily fall to Quinn's telepathic powers.

"**Which there may be, if you and Elliot saw another one last night."**

"**Well…" Vicky hesitated, then said, "We can check outside, make sure he doesn't have any friends hiding around that warehouse."**

**Steve was nodding, and Nyala was listening. Rashel started to say that from what she'd see, they couldn't find a vampire in hiding to save their lives – but then she changed her mind.**

"**Good idea," she said. " You take Nyala and do that. Its better to have three people than two. I'll tie him up before he comes around. I've got bast cord."**

"What's a bast cord?" Mark asked.

"It's a cord made from the inner bark of trees, very effective in immobilizing a vampire." Jez rattled the information off.

Morgead pinned her with a fierce emerald glare, "How do you know."

"I pay attention." Jez responded curtly with a flick of her flaming hair.

**Vicky glanced over quickly, but her hostility seemed to have faded since Rashel had knocked the vampire over the head. "Okay but let's use the handcuffs. Nyala, run up there to get them."**

**Nyala did, and she and Vicky fixed the wooden stocks on the vampire's wrists. Then they left with Steve.**

**Rashel sat on the floor.**

"Yes, she's gone!" Delos gave off a mock hurrah.

Maggie chuckled and looked from him to his older counterpart. "What wrong with him?" She asked **Thierry**.

**Delos** had fallen soundlessly asleep in his chair.

**Thierry** sighed, "He's been up all night staking out a dragon."

"Impossible!" Galen cried incredulously. "There are no dragons left."

**Thierry **stared the young First House shape shifter straight in the eye. "I assure you dragons are alive and they will wake once again."

Galen trembled as he slumped back down in his seat.

**She didn't know what she was doing or why she'd sent Nyala away. All she knew was that she wanted to be alone, and that she felt… rotten. **

**It wasn't that she didn't have anger. There were times when she got so angry at the universe that was actually like a little voice in her head whispering, Kill, kill, kill. Times when she wanted to strike out blindly, without caring who she hurt.**

**But now the little voice was silent, and Rashel felt sick. **

**To keep herself busy, she tied his feet with bast, a cord made from the inner bark of trees. It was as good for holding a vampire as Vicky's ridiculous handcuffs.**

**When it was done she turned the flashlight on him again.**

**He was good looking. **

Mary-Lynette stopped and skimmed this part, wary of saying something that might be potentially embarrassing to Rashel. Ash was trying to peek over her shoulder but she shooed him away. Mary-Lynette bit her lip after the skimming was over.

"Rashel," She finally spoke. The girl's cat like yes met her own blue ones as Rashel waited for the younger girl to continue. "Could you come here for a minute?" Mary-Lynette stood from the couch and, frowning, Rashel did the same and strode over to her. Mary-Lynette showed her the paragraph.

As Rashel's traveled farther down the page her cheeks gained a pink tint. Rashel shook her head vigorously and Mary-Lynette got the hint. Sitting down again, with Ash still trying to peer over her shoulder Mary-Lynette scanned for a good place to restart.

**She'd seen attractive vampires before- in fact an inordinate number of them seemed to be really beautiful. It didn't mean anything. It only stood as a contrast to what they really were inside.**

**The tall man who'd killed her mother had been handsome. She could still see his face, his golden eyes.**

**Filthy parasites. Night World scum. They weren't really people. They were monsters.**

James, Thierry, Morgead, Jade, Rowan, Thea, Jez, and Quinn flinched. Delos gave her a princely glare.

"Do you really hate all of us that much?" Thea spoke up quietly.

"I-" but the words died in Rashel's throat before she would not have hesitated but now having to be trapped in a room full of Night Worlders, who weren't _that_ bad, the words did not come out easy. She just wouldn't, couldn't trust them all yet. So she remained silent.

**But they could still feel pain, just like any human. She'd hurt this one when she'd hit him.**

**Rashel jumped up and started to pace the cellar.**

**All right. This vampire deserved to die. They all did. Bu that didn't mean she had to wait for Vicky to come back and poke him with pointy sticks.**

**Rashel knew now why she'd sent Nyala away. So she could give the vampire a clean death. Maybe he didn't deserve it, but she couldn't stand around and watch Vicky kill him slowly. _She couldn't._**

**She stopped pacing and went to the unconscious boy.**

**The flashlight on the floor was still pointing at him, so she could see him clearly. He was wearing a lightweight black shirt- no sweater or coat. Vampires didn't need protection from the cold. Rashel unbuttoned the shirt, exposing his chest. **

**Thierry **spoke, "One inappropriate comment from anyone and you'll find yourself in a very uncomfortable predicament." He warned. The comments from some of the teens that were about to be voiced died on the owner's lips.

**Although the angled tip of her bokken could pierce clothing, it was easier to drive it straight into vampire flesh without any barrier between.**

**Standing with one foot one either side of the vampire's waist, she drew the heavy wooden sword She held it in both hands, one near the guard, the other near the knob on the end of the hilt.**

**She positioned the end exactly over the vampire's heart.**

"**This kitten has claws," she whispered, hardly aware she was saying it.**

**Then she took a deep breath, eyes shut. She needed to work to focus, because she's never done anything like this before. The vampires she'd killed had usually been caught in the middle of some despicable act- they'd all been fighting in the end. She'd never staked on that was lying still.**

**Concentrate, she thought. You need to zanshine, continuing mind, awareness of everything without fixing on anything.**

**She felt her feet becoming part of the cold concrete beneath them, her muscles and bones becoming extensions of the ground. The strike would carry the energy of the earth itself.**

_That's pretty cool_. Mark thought

**Her hands brought the sword up. She was ready for the kill. She opened her eyes to perfect her aim.**

**And then she saw the vampire was awake. His eyes were open and he was looking at her. **

"Da da da duuuummm." Maggie said pretending to press her fingers down on an imaginary organ earning a small chuckle from everyone.

"I hate cliff hangers." Eric complained.

"I know they're horrible." Poppy stuck out her tongue to nothing in particular.

"Well who's going to read next we won't have to wait much longer?" Mary-Lynette asked.

"I will."

"Delos?" Maggie asked in surprise.

The prince settled back down in his chair the newly retrieved book in hand. "Yes?"

"...Nothing. Just nothing."

He gave her a disbelieving look but did not question, he only opened the book to the next chapter.

* * *

**Yay! Wow there was a lot of glaring going on that chapter. And looks like Quinn finally understands what's happening to him. ^_^ Anyway don't forget the pole for the next book and to review.**


	9. The Chosen C5

**Thank you too everyone who reviewed , your kind words mean so much. And thank you bellacullen202 and **

**xxlamia vampressxx who helped me get this chapter out.**

* * *

**Rashel froze. Her sword remained in the air, poised over the vampire's heart.**

**"Well, what are you waiting for?" the vampire said. "Go on and do it."**

"You said you weren't suicidal." Jade yelped.

"Would you shut up?" Quinn growled. "I am not suicidal." True he'd thought of hundreds of ways to kill himself, end his suffering then and there, but he wasn't ready to die yet. He still felt like there was a piece missing from his life. He needed to find that piece or the pain would drive him utterly mad.

**Rashel didn't know what she was waiting for. The vampire was in a position to block her sword with his wooden handcuffs, but he didn't do any such thing. She could tell by his body language that he wasn't going to, either. Instead he just lay there, looking up at her with eyes that were as dark and empty as the depths of space.**

_It's a trick, girl!_ Rashel wanted to scream at her book self. Quinn would play calm until he found a time to strike.

**His hair was tousled on his forehead and his mouth was a bleak line. He didn't seem afraid. He just went on staring with those fathomless eyes.**

**All right, Rashel thought. Do it. Even the leech is telling you to. Do it fast—now.**

**But instead she found herself pivoting and stepping slowly away from him.**

"Well, that didn't work did it?" Morgead grinned impishly.

"I don't take orders from, parasites." Rashel snapped back.

**"Sorry," she said out loud. "I don't take orders from parasites."**

"That's still creepy." Gillian shivered.

"You cold, Gillian?" David asked

**Thierry** coughed at the irony.

"What?" Gillian turned slightly toward David a faint trace of pink covering her cheeks.

He reached out for her arm. "I said are you-" His hand meet her wrist, sending a pleasant tingly feeling down both their spins.

Gillian jerked away letting her hair cover the dark blush. "I'm fine."

Rowan and James stared at them, a knowing look in their eyes.

**She kept her sword at the ready in case he made any sudden moves. But all he did was glance down at the wooden handcuffs, wiggle his wrists in them, and the lie back.**

**"I see," he said with a strange smile. "So it's torture this time, right? Well, that should be amusing for you."**

"I think Quinn's going insane." Maggie whispered to Delos. Luckily Quinn and Rashel's seat was too far away and Maggie spoke too softly for the mentioned vampire to hear.

Delos just hummed in amusement.

_**Stake him, dummy,**_** came the little voice in Rashel's head. Don't talk to him. It's dangerous to get in a conversation with his kind.**

_Maybe that little voice isn't so bad?_Rashel mused.

**But she couldn't refocus herself. In a minute, she told the voice. First I have to get my own control back.**

**She knelt in her ready-for-action crouch and picked up the flashlight, turning it full on his face. He blinked and looked away, squinting.**

"Now, that's not very nice." Quinn said, playfully.

"Are you ever nice?" Rashel asked trying to sound bored.

Quinn gave her the strange smile the book must have mentioned. "Only sometimes-"

_And only to certain people. _Quinn's mental voice floated slowly through Rashel's mind. She frowned and gulped back the burning in her cheeks.

**There. Now she could see him, but he couldn't see her. Vampire eyes were hypersensitive to light. And even if he did manage to get a glimpse of her, she was wearing a scarf. She had all the advantages, and it made her feel more in command of the situation.**

_Wish I felt that way now._ Rashel drew a breath still trying to keep the blush away.

**"Why would you think we want to torture you?" she said.**

**He smiled at the ceiling, not trying to look at her. "Because I'm still alive." He raised the handcuffs. "And aren't these traditional? A few vampires from the south shore have turned up mutilated with stocks like these on. It seemed to have been done for fun." Smile.**

"Quinn," Poppy looked from the book to the vampire. "You're weird."

Quinn chuckled, "I'm a five hundred year-old-vampire, what did you expect?"

"You still act like an eighteen-year-old." Rashel leaned farther back into the couch.

"I was eighteen when I 'died' old habits are hard to leave behind."

"Mmhmm."

**Vicky's work, Rashel thought. She wished he would stop smiling. It was such a disturbing smile, beautiful and a little mad.**

_Did she like the way he smiled?_ Quinn thought looking at Rashel. He scowled at the thought becoming angry with himself. What did he care if the human like his smiled?

"What?" Rashel demanded with more force than she'd intended when everyone turned toward her.

The room vibrated with mumbled responses.

**"Unless," the vampire was going on, "it's information you want."**

**Rashel snorted. "Would I be likely to get information from you if I **_**did**_** want it?"**

**"Well." Smile. "Not likely."**

**"I didn't think so," Rashel said dryly.**

**He laughed out loud.**

**Oh, God, Rashel thought. **_**Stake**_** him.**

**She didn't know what was wrong with her. Okay, he was charming—in a weird way.**

_Got that right. _Rashel rolled her eyes.

**But she'd known other charming vampires—smooth, practiced flatterers who tried to sweet-talk or cajole their way out of being staked. Some had tried to seduce her. Almost all had tried mind control. It was only because Rashel had the will to resist telepathy that she was alive today.**

"You can resist telepathy?" Thierry asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Well it's rare we hear of human being able to resist even some of our weaker telepaths."

_I don't think she's completely human._ Keller narrowed her eyes. _I don't know what Rashel is but she's not all human._

"What's wrong, Keller?" Galen cocked his head to the side.

Keller's eyes shifted to of him but she didn't move. "Why do you think something's wrong?"

"Well, you're killing the armrests."

Keller glanced at her hands holding onto the arm of the chair in a white-knuckled grip. She released the chair and relaxed into the velvet back of the chair, eyes still narrowed suspiciously.

**But this vampire wasn't doing any of the ordinary things—and when he laughed, it made Rashel's heart thump oddly. His whole face changed when he laughed. A sort of light shone in it.**

Quinn couldn't decide whether growl and shred something to pieces with his bare hands or whimper (which he hadn't done in hundreds of years) at the harsh tug-of-war game this book was putting his heart through. Did he like the way Rashel seemed to enjoy his laugh? Or laugh at the way she described him?

**Girl, you are in **_**trouble**_**. Kill him quick.**

_It's not gonna _happen_. _James shook his head.

**"****Look," she said, and she was surprised to find her voice a little shaky. "This isn't personal. And you probably don't care, but I'm not the one who was going to torture you. This is business, and it's what I have to do." She took a deep breath and reached for the sword by her knee.**

**He turned his face to the light. He wasn't smiling now and there was no amusement in his voice when he said, "I understand. You've got… honor."**

_So he does understand honor. _Rashel wanted to pull her hair out. _Maybe I underestimated him….maybe he's not like the other I've fought? No! _Rashel fisted her hands. _Get a grip. This is Quinn we're talking about…. _Her heart twisted painfully.

**Looking back at the ceiling, he added, "And you're right, this is the way it always has to end when our two races meet. It's kill or be killed. The law of nature."**

"That law sucks." Poppy huffed, crossed her arms, and then blinked. "Uh, no pun intended."

"Of course," Thierry smiled. "The law does suck, Poppy, but sometimes that's the way things are."

"But why?" Poppy argued. "Why do things have to be like that. How hard is it to not kill someone?"

"Some vampires have no shame, Poppy." James said. "They have neither shame nor any boundaries; they do what they want when they want."

"They're what give vampires such a bad name." Thea added.

"You're not a vampire…right?" Eric asked.

Thea smiled slightly. "No, witch not vampire."

"You say vampire like it's a bad thing, cousin." James said in mock hurt.

Thea rolled her eyes. "Shut it, Rasmussen."

**He was speaking to her as one warrior to another. Suddenly Rashel felt something she'd never felt for a vampire before. Respect. A strange wish that they weren't on opposite sides in this war. A regret that they could never be anything but deadly enemies.**

Heat burned Rashel's cheeks. She realized she wanted that feeling …it might help her sort all of….**this** out_._

**He's somebody I could talk to, she thought. An odd loneliness had taken hold of her. She realized she cared about having anyone to talk to.**

"What is it?" She snapped when they all turned toward her…again. "You want to tell me none of you have ever realized that or thought about it once or twice?"

Everyone promptly looked away.

**She found herself saying awkwardly, "Is there anybody you want notified—afterward? I mean, do you have any family? I could make sure the news gets around, so they'd know what had happened to you."**

"That's untraditional," Quinn said.

"This whole situation is untraditional." Rashel answered.

**She didn't expect him to actually give her any names. That would be crazy. In this game knowledge was power, with each side trying to find out who the players on the other side were. If you could identify someone as a vampire—or a vampire hunter—you knew who to kill.**

**It was Batman and Catwoman all over. The important thing was to preserve your secret identity.**

"So this Batman did he have feelings for this Catwoman as well? Because it seems that Catwoman has feeling for Batman." Delos asked.

"E-excuse me?" Rashel knew her face was completely red now and Quinn's wasn't much better.

"Uh, Delos maybe you should let me explain a few more things." Maggie got his attention on her once again.

**But this vampire, who was obviously a lunatic, said thoughtfully, "Well, you **_**could**_** send a note to my adopted father. He's Hunter Redfern. Sorry I can't give you an address, but he should be somewhere down east." Another smile. "I forgot to tell you my name. It's Quinn."**

**Rashel felt as if she'd been hit with an oak club.**

"Been there done that." Rashel muttered.

_**Quinn**_**.**

**One of the most dangerous vampires in all the Night World. Maybe **_**the**_** most dangerous of the made vampires, the ones who'd started out human. She knew him by reputation—every vampire hunter did. He was supposed to be a deadly fighter and a brilliant strategist; clever, resourceful… and cold as ice. He despised humans, held them in utter contempt. He wanted the Night World to wipe them out, except for a few to be used for food.**

Quinn flinched, "Ouch."

**I was wrong, Rashel thought dazedly. I should have let Vicky torture him. I'm sure he deserves it, if any of them do. God only knows what he's done in his time.**

**Quinn had turned his head toward her again, looking straight into the flashlight even though it must be hurting his eyes.**

**"****So you see, you'd better kill me fast," he said in a voice soft as snow falling. "Because that's certainly what I'm going to do to **_**you**_** if I get loose."**

_Somehow I doubt he would actually be able to kill Rashel. _Rowan thought.

**Rashel gave a strained laugh. "Am I supposed to be scared?"**

**"****Only if you have the brains to know who I am." Now he sounded tired and scornful. "Which obviously you don't."**

**"****Well, let me see. I seem to remember **_**something**_** about the Redferns… Aren't they the family who controls the vampire part of the Night World Council? The most important family of all the lamia, the born vampires. Descended directly from Maya, the legendary first vampire. And Hunter Redfern is their leader, the upholder of Night World law, the one who colonized America with vampires back in the sixteen hundreds. Tell me if I'm getting any of this wrong."**

**He gave her a cold glance.**

**"****You see, we have our sources. And I seem to remember them mentioning **_**your**_** name, too. You were made a vampire by Hunter… and since his own children were all daughters, you're also his heir."**

**Quinn laughed sourly. "Yes, well, that's an on-again, off-again thing. You might say I have a love-hate relationship with the Redferns. We spend most of the time wishing each other at the bottom of the Atlantic."**

**"****Tch, vampire family infighting," Rashel said. "Why is it always so hard to get along with your folks?" Despite her light words, she had to focus to keep control of her breathing.**

**It wasn't fear. She truly wasn't scared of him. It was something like confusion. Clearly, she should be killing him at this moment instead of chatting with him. She couldn't understand why she wasn't doing it.**

_I don't understand it either._ Quinn sighed internally.

**The only excuse she had was that it seemed to make him even more confused and angry than it did her.**

**"****I don't think you've heard **_**enough**_** about me," he said, showing his teeth. "I'm your worst nightmare, human. I even shock other vampires. Like old Hunter… he has certain ideas about propriety. How you kill, and who. If he knew some of the things I do, he'd fall down dead himself."**

_Well, this is just great. This won't help at all._ Quinn's growled in irritation.

**Good old Hunter, Rashel thought. The stiff moral patriarch of the Redfern clan, still caught up in the seventeenth century. He might be a vampire, but he was definitely a New Englander.**

**"****Maybe I should find a way to tell him," she said whimsically.**

**Quinn gave her another cold look, this time tempered with respect. "If I thought you could **_**find**_** him, I'd worry."**

**Rashel was suddenly struck by something. "You know, I don't think I've ever heard anyone say your first name. I mean, I presume you have one."**

"How would you know?" Quinn asked.

Rashel stared at the made vampire. She didn't know herself. Honestly, Rashel had heard of Quinn but never put much thought into him or even if he had a first name.

Rashel met his bottomless eyes. They were hard to read but Rashel saw surprise in his eyes and maybe…anticipation? He wanted to tell her his real name…and even though she'd really just met him she wanted to know.

**He blinked. Then, as if he were surprised himself, he said, "John."**

"Jonathon." Ash and Morgead chorused.

"Be quiet." Quinn snarled.

_John._ Rashel thought in wonder. _Such a human name._

**"****John Quinn. John."**

**"****I didn't invite you to **_**call**_** me it."**

**"****All right, whatever." She said it absently, deep in thought. John Quinn. Such a normal name, a **_**Boston**_** name. The name of a real person. It made her think of him as a person, instead of as Quinn the Dreadful.**

"That is a horrible nickname." Quinn said in mock seriousness.

"Oh, shut up." Rashel answered.

**"****Look," Rashel said, and then she asked him something she'd never asked a Night Person before. She said, "Did you **_**want**_** Hunter Redfern to make you a vampire?"**

**There was a long pause. Then Quinn said expressionlessly, "As a matter of fact, I wanted to kill him for it."**

**"****I see." I'd want to do the same, Rashel thought. She didn't mean to ask any more questions, but she found herself saying, "Then why did he do it? I mean, why pick you?"**

**Another pause. Just when she was sure he wouldn't answer, he said, "I was—I wanted to marry one of his daughters. Her name was Dove."**

**"****You wanted to marry a vampire?"**

**"****I didn't know she was a vampire!" This time Quinn's voce was quick and impatient. "Hunter Redfern was accepted in Charlestown. Granted, a few people said his wife had been a witch, but in those days people said that if you smiled in church."**

**"****So he just lived there and nobody knew," Rashel said.**

**"****Most people accepted him." A faint mocking smile curved Quinn's lips. "My own father accepted him, and he was the minister."**

**Despite herself, Rashel was fascinated. "And you had to be a vampire to marry her? Dove, I mean."**

**"****I didn't get to marry her," Quinn said tonelessly. He seemed as surprised as she was that he was telling her these things. But he went on, seeming to speak almost to himself. "Hunter wanted me to marry one of his other daughters. I said I'd rather marry a pig**

That got the vampires howling. Mary-Lynette and Jez were pretty sure Ash and Morgead were going to roll off the couch any minute. Jade, Rowan, and even Kestrel were giggling uncontrollably. Poppy was chuckling quietly at James who had tears running down his face. Thierry was even clutching his side trying and failing to stop laughing.

"Anyone get why that's so funny?" Maggie asked.

"Maybe it's a vampire thing." Thea shrugged

Delos seemed to keep his princely demeanor coughing to hide his amusement and returned to reading.

**. Garnet—that's the oldest—was about as interesting as a stick of wood. And Lily, the middle one, was evil. I could see that in her eyes. I only wanted Dove."**

**"****And you told him that?"**

**"****Of course. He agreed to it finally—and then he told me his family's secret. Well." Quinn laughed bitterly. "He didn't **_**tell**_** me, actually. It was more of a demonstration. When s dead and a vampire. It was quite an experience."**

**Rashel opened her mouth and then shut it again, trying to imagine the horror of it. Finally she just said, "I bet."**

**They sat for a moment in silence. Rashel had never felt so… close to a vampire. Instead of disgust and hatred, she felt pity.**

**"****But what happened to Dove?"**

**Quinn seemed to tense all over. "She died," he said nastily. It was clear that his confidences were over.**

**"****How?"**

**"****None of your business!"**

**Rashel tilted her head and looked at him soberly. "How, John Quinn? You know, there are some things you really ought to tell other people. It might help."**

**"****I don't need a damn psychoanalyst," he spat. He was furious now, and there was a dark light in his eyes that ought to have frightened Rashel. He looked as wild as she felt sometimes, when she didn't care who she hurt.**

**She wasn't frightened. She was strangely calm, the kind of calm she felt when her breathing exercises made her feel one with the earth and absolutely sure of her path.**

**"****Look, Quinn—"**

**"****I really think you'd better kill me now," he said tightly. "Unless you're too stupid or too scared. This wood won't hold forever, you know. And when I get out, I'm going to use that sword on **_**you**_**."**

**Startled, Rashel looked down at Vicky's handcuffs. They were bent. Not the oak, of course—it was the metal hinges that were coming apart. Soon he'd have enough room to slip them off.**

"Vicky only shows more her stupidity." Kestrel scoffed.

**He was very strong, even for a vampire.**

**And then, with the same odd calm, she realized what she was going to do.**

**"****Yes, that's a good idea," she said. "Keep bending them. I can say that's how you got out."**

**"****What are you talking about?"**

**Rashel got up and searched for a steel knife to cut the cords on his feet. "I'm letting you go John Quinn," she said.**

**He paused in his wrenching of the handcuffs. "You're insane," he said, as if he'd just discovered this.**

"Honestly, you want to lecture me on brains?" Rashel almost laughed. "You're the one who could be related to the freaking Mad Hatter."

Quinn held up his hands in surrender. "Hey, I didn't say it, book me said it."

"Yeah, blame it on the book."

**"****You may be right." Rashel found the knife and slit through the bast cords.**

**He gave the handcuffs a twist. "If," he said deliberately, "you think that because I was a human once, I have any pity on them, you are very, very wrong. I hate humans more than I hate the Redferns."**

**"****Why?"**

**He bared his teeth. "No, thank you. I don't have to explain anything to you. Just take my word for it."**

**She believed him. He looked as angry and as dangerous as an animal in a trap. "All right," she said, stepping back and putting her hand on the hilt of her **_**bokken**_**. "Take your best shot. But remember, I beat you once. I was the one who knocked you out."**

**He blinked. Then he shook his head in disbelief. "You little **_**idiot**_**," he said. "I wasn't paying attention. I thought you were another of those jerks falling over their own feet. And I wasn't even fighting **_**them**_** seriously." He sat up in one fluid motion that showed the strength he had, and the control of his own body.**

**"****You don't have a chance," he said softly, turning those dark eyes on her. Now that he wasn't looking into the flashlight, his pupils were huge. "You're dead already."**

**Rashel had a sinking feeling that was telling her the same thing.**

_What's gotten into me? _Rashel put her head into her hands.

_The soulmate principle._ It was Quinn's voice.

_What?_ No answer. He had left her feeling more confused than ever.

**"****I'm faster than any human," the soft voice went on. "I'm stronger than any human. I can see better in the dark. And I'm much, much nastier."**

**Panic exploded inside Rashel.**

**All at once, she believed him absolutely. She couldn't see to get her breath, and a void had opened in her stomach. She lost any vestige of her previous calm.**

**He's right—you were an idiot, she told herself wildly. You had every chance to stop him and you blew it. And why? Because you were sorry for him? Sorry for a deranged monster who's going to tear you limb from limb now? Anyone as stupid as that deserves what they get.**

**She felt as if she were falling, unable to get hold of anything…**

**And then suddenly she did seem to catch something. Something that she clung to desperately, trying to resist the fear that wanted to suck her into darkness.**

**You couldn't have done anything else.**

"Stupid little voice." Rashel huffed

**It was a little voice in her mind, being helpful for once. And, strangely, Rashel knew it was true. She **_**couldn't**_** have killed him when he was tied up and helpless, not without becoming a monster herself. And after hearing his story, she couldn't have ignored the pity she felt.**

**I'm probably going to die now, she thought. And I'm still scared. But I'd do it over again. It was right.**

Quinn cut his eyes sharply toward Rashel. This human was a conundrum. A puzzle he wanted to solve. _No. Not again…_

Too late.

_Rashel's right that little voice is a pain._ Quinn thought, sardonically.

**She hung on to that as she let the last seconds tick away, the last window of opportunity to stake him while the cuffs still held. She knew they were ticking away, and she knew Quinn knew.**

**"****What a shame to rip your throat out," he said.**

**Rashel held her ground.**

**Quinn gave the handcuffs a final wrench, and the metal hinges squealed. Then the stocks clattered onto the concrete and he stood up, free. Rashel couldn't see his face anymore; it was above the reach of the flashlight.**

**"****Well," he said evenly.**

**Rashel whispered, "Well."**

**They stood facing each other.**

**Rashel was waiting for the tiny involuntary body movements that would give away which direction he was going to lunge. But he was more still than any enemy she'd ever seen. He kept his tension inside, ready to explode only when he directed it. His control seemed to be complete.**

**He's go **_**zanshin**_**, she thought.**

**"****You're very good," she said softly.**

**"****Thanks. So are you."**

**"****Thanks."**

**"****But it isn't going to matter in the end."**

**Rashel started to say, "We'll see"—and he lunged.**

**She had an instant's warning. A barely perceptible movement of his leg told her he was going to spring to his right, her left. Her body reacted without her direction, moving smoothly… and she didn't realize until she was doing it that she wasn't using the sword.**

**She had stepped forward, inside his attack, and deflected it with a mirror palm block, striking the innerside of his arm with her left arm. Hitting the nerves to try and numb the limb.**

**But not cutting him. She realized with a dizzy sense of horror that she didn't **_**want**_** to use the sword on him.**

_My head hurts._ Rashel thought head still in her hands. And to make it even worse her hearts was in knots.

**"****You are going to **_**die**_**, idiot," he told her, and for an instant she wasn't sure if it was him saying it or the voice in her head.**

**She tried to push him away. All she could think was that she needed time, time to get her survival reflexes back. She shoved at him—**

—**and then her bare hand brushed his, and something happened that was completely beyond her experience.**

Rashel quietly released the breath she didn't know she had been holding in. The stress on her heart receded.

"Well, this has gotten interesting." Delos held the book out for someone else to take.

"Toss it over here." Hannah held up her hands.

* * *

**Yeah, I don't think this is the best chapter I've ever written but review please. Oops forgot the disclaimer. **

**Ash pops out of nowhere. "Water doesn't own the Nightworld." He disappears,**

**Water:…. *breaks the fourth wall* Y'all saw that too right? **


	10. The Chosen Ch6

**Gah! Sorry, sorry! I meant to get this posted before the end of May but that didn't work too well. **

**Thank you to all the reviewers, y'all are great! And thank you for being patient with me. **

**I don't own anything about the Night World.**

Delos stared at the blond across the room holding up her hands, waiting expectantly. Sighing, he turned the thick book sideways and tossed it Frisbee- style toward her. The sharp flapping of the book's pages was the only noise throughout the room as the occupants watched with mild interest to see if the book would actually meet its mark. David yelped, ducking before the book could hit him upside the head. It came close enough, though, and he felt the thin pages sweep across his black hair. For once Gillian was thankful for her short stature and tried not to giggle at the doubled over boy who scowled.

"Watch it!"

Startled, Hannah closed her eyes and drew her hands up higher to protect her face if she could not catch the airborne volume. But the assault never came; she never felt the book's heavy weight touch her. Opening one gray eye she peeked through her hands.

The book floated there just a few inches away, held aloft by a pale hand. Hannah blinked lowering her hands tracing the hand back up the arm and finally met the sad dark eyes of the owner. The grief so deep in his eyes made her breath hitch. She had been sitting beside him for over two hours, how had she not noticed those eyes?

But then, his eyes closed, Hannah could breathe again, and he smiled slightly, "Here you are, Hannah." Thierry set the book into her still open hands.

The very tips of his fingers brushed against her hand and the feeling of being hit by lightning ruined the careful moment. Hannah grabbed the armrests in a small attempt to calm her shaking. Everything tingled as the horrible sensation continued on its current. But her head hurt the most. One name, so far off and so long forgotten blasted through her mind.

Hana.

"Hannah! Hannah!"

Someone was calling out to her shaking her by the shoulders but she could register who. Blood, wild eyes, someone crying above her, her own life slipping away, and the feeling of forgiveness stormed in her mind's eye. It felt so real but so far off. But just as fast as the pictures had come they left, and Hannah shook her head trying to remember what had just occurred. She reached out for the long forgotten memory but no matter how far she reached, it seemed to slip through her fingers.

"Wake up, Hannah!"

Clear gray eyes focused in on her surroundings once again. Too many faces to count stared down her. And for one frightening moment, Hannah forgot where she was. None of the faces gawking at her were familiar but a pair of dark eyes caught her attention and she sighed in relief.

Regaining her bearings and realizing she had ended up on the floor during…whatever it was that had happened to her, she rose.

"Are you okay, Hannah?" Poppy asked warily watching as the other girl tried to stand.

"I," Hannah winced holding the back of her head, "I think so, except for a killer headache."

"What happened?" Galen asked.

"I don't know. Thierry gave me book and then," she scrunched up her nose, "I don't remember."

"See, those books are just away to torcher us." Morgead huffed.

"I can assure you whatever happened it wasn't caused by the book." **Thierry** answered,

The circle of humans and Night People that had gathered around spread out returning to their seats seeing that Hannah was alright.

"Do you still want to read?" Thierry asked her uneasily as they sat back down.

"Yeah, my head still hurts, but I think I can manage a chapter." She replied trying to calm him some.

He mumbled a reply but it was too low for her to hear.

"Alright," Cracking open the book she located chapter six, "Here we go."

"Yay, back to us." Quinn muttered sourly and Rashel agreed in the same tone.

**What she felt was a shivering jolt that began in her palm and ran up her arm like electricity. It left tingling in its wake. But the real shock was in her head.**

_Ah, so they __**are**__ soulmates_, Thierry thought. He'd had his suspicions since** Galen** and **Keller** had mentioned that two people would be involved in each story but someone from the Night World having a human soulmate was practically unheard of. True, he had his own human soulmate, but… he looked around the room, amazed. The room was mostly composed of humans, how many of the Night People in this room had soulmate who wasn't from the Night World?

_No denying it now, _Quinn thought. There was the proof written in black and white.

**Her mind exploded. That was the only way she could describe it. A noiseless, heatless explosion that shattered her completely. All at once, Rashel couldn't support her own weight anymore. **

"What did you do to me?" Rashel asked Quinn, slightly shocked.

That had happened once before, when they first began reading The Chosen, when Quinn had accidently touched her.

The only response she received from him was the slow shaking of his head.

**She could feel Quinn's arms supporting her.**

"Not one word." Quinn hissed. It was bad enough reading the girls' minds and hearing most of them think 'aw' it would have been another if they said it out loud.

**She had no sense of the room around her. She was floating in a white light and the only solid thing to hang on to was Quinn.**

"Don't go into the light." Ash said in mock concern earning an eye roll.

**It was something like the terror she'd felt before…but it wasn't just terror. Impossibly, what she felt was more like wild elation**

**She realized Quinn was holding her so tightly that it hurt. But even stronger than the sensation of his arms was the sense she had of his **_**mind**_**. A direct conduit seemed to have opened between them. She could feel his astonishment, his shock, his wonder. And she knew he could feel hers.**

The invasion of her mind, invading his own, feeling what he felt, knowing what he could feel, it was all the same. Everything it had been before and it still scared Rashel.

"No," Ash's eyes narrowed. "It couldn't be."

Morgead shook his head, "I don't believe it, that story is just superstition."

"And supposedly so are witches, vampires, shapeshifters, and werewolves but…" Thea motioned her arms around the room to finish her sentence. Clearly haveing come to the same decision as the vampires and just as unsure.

"What are you talking about?" Maggie asked.

"They are speaking of an old story passed down in the Night World." Delos answered a little eager to be the one informing Maggie of something she did not know of this time.

"What about it?" Rashel eying Quinn skeptically, who was making a point of not turning to look at her.

"Why don't you finish reading?" **Thierry** suggested ignoring the sharp look Rashel sent his way.

**It's telepathy, some distant part of herself said, trying desperately to get control again. It's some new vampire trick.**

"Trick, she says," Morgead muttered.

**But she knew it wasn't a trick. Quinn was as astounded as she was-she could **_**feel **_**that. Maybe he was even worse off. He was breathing rapidly and shallowly and a fine trembling seemed to have taken over his body.**

**Rashel held on to him, thinking crazy things. She wanted to comfort him. She could sense, probably better the he himself, how frighteningly vulnerable he was under that frozen exterior.**

_This is crazy!_ Rashel mentally yelled. _H-he's a leech, a parasite_, _why would I-_

**Like me, I suppose, Rashel thought giddily.**

_suppose that's true. _Rashel bit her lip, the knot in her heart loosened, only slightly.

**And then she suddenly realized that **_**he**_** was feeling **_**her **_**vulnerability just as she had felt his. Fear welled up in her so sharply she panicked.**

**She tried to find a way to shut him out, to resist the way she resist the way she resisted mind control-but she knew it was useless. He had gotten past her guard already. He was **_**inside.**_

Rashel's breathing began coming in short painful breaths keeping all her attention on Hannah's reading, heart tightening once again coming back with full force. Quinn had gotten inside. Inside her mind. What would he do now that he had that advantage over her?

"**It's all right," Quinn said, and she realized that he had stopped trembling.**

Taking one deep breath to get a hold of herself, Rashel released it in what seemed to be relief. So far Quinn had stopped trying to hurt her.

**His voice was almost dispassionate, and at the same time madly gentle. **

"Is that possible?" Jade asked. Mark answered her with a shrug.

**Rashel had the feeling that he'd decided that since he couldn't fight this thing, he might as well be as insane as possible.**

"Insanity seems to be your specialty." Rashel quipped dryly. More than happy to return to harmless barter than the scared mess she had been not seconds before.

"I've had many years of practice."

**Strangest of all, she found his words reassuring.**

"It seems you're not too bad at it yourself." Quinn returned in the same tone she had previously taken.

"You're a bad influence."

**And there was the fire under the ice that seemed to incase him. She could feel that now, and she had the dizzy sense that she was the first one to uncover it.**

Quinn raised an eyebrow to voice his mild shock. No one, not even the strongest of telepaths, had discovered that part of him. The part that hadn't frozen over long ago refusing all the emotions that would cause Quinn to feel anything…but the cold.

**They had fallen to the floor somehow, and they were sitting just at the edge of the light. Quinn was holding her by the shoulders, precisely, and Rashel was astonished at her own response to his clinical grip. It topped her breath, held her absolutely motionless. **

**The, just as precisely, every movement deliberate, Quinn found the end of her scarf and began to unwind it.**

Rashel's eyes narrowed in confusion. Quinn wanted to see her face? To know who she was?

**He was still filled with that mad gentleness, that lunatic calm.**

_Sounds like a good description to me._ Rashel thought sardonically.

**And she wasn't stopping him. He was going to expose her face, and she wasn't doing a thing about it. **

**She**_** wanted**_** him to. In spite of her terror, she wanted him to see her face, to know who she was. She wanted to be face to face with him in that strange light that had enveloped both their minds. It didn't seem to matter what happened afterward.**

_I've lost it._ The vampire hunter mentally threw up her arms in exasperation. _Whatever is happening has made me go insane._

**She said, "John."**

She called him by his name. No one had called him by his given name in a long time. Quinn ground his teeth, damned Principle, what was it doing to them?

**He unwound another length of the scarf, preoccupied and intent as if her were making some archeological discovery. "You didn't tell me your name." It was a statement. He wasn't pushing her.**

**She might as well write it out on a death warrant and hand it to him. Quinn could reveal himself to humans-but then Quinn could disappear completely if he wanted, hole up in some hidden vampire enclave where no human could search him out. Rashel couldn't. He knew she was a vampire hunter. If he knew her name and her face, he'd have every power to destroy her.**

**And the scariest thing of all was that she didn't care.**

**He was down to the last turn of the scarf. In a moment her face would be exposed to the air…and to vampire eyes that could see in this darkness.**

**I'm Rashel, Rashel thought. She couldn't quite get the words to her lips. She took a deep breath.**

**And at the same instant a light blazed into her eyes.**

"Well," Quinn smiled insanely at Rashel. "It's good I got your name now, instead of waiting until then."

"So you say," she crossed her arms eying him through half-lidded eyes.

**Not the ghostly light that had been in her mind. Real light, the beams from several high-power flashlights, harsh and horribly bright. They cut the through the dark cellar and threw Rashel and Quinn into stark illumination. **

"Busted,"Morgead stated indifferently.

**Rashel gasped. One hand instinctively flew to her scarf to keep it over her face. She felt like she had been caught naked.**

**And she was horrified to realize that she hadn't heard anyone come into the cellar. She had been completely absorbed, oblivious to her surroundings. What had happened to all of her training? What was **_**wrong**_** with her?**

_I wish I knew,_ Rashel thought.

**She couldn't see anything beyond the light. Her first thought was that it was Quinn's vampire friends come to save him. He seemed to think it might be, too; at least he was standing shoulder to shoulder with her, even trying to push her back a little.**

"Aw, Quinny cares," Ash teased.

Quinn remained impassive. Hopefully it was just those fools from before. If it were some of his friends, he didn't know if he would be able to protect Rashel from all of them.

**With an odd pang, Rashel realized she could only guess what they were thinking. The connection between them had been cleanly severed.**

_Yeah, _Rashel's shoulders slumped_. I know how you feel._

**Then a voice came from beyond the terrible brightness, a sharp voice filled with outrage. "How did he get loose? And what were you two**_** doing**_**?"**

"She's back." Delos ground out, clearly displeased.

Maggie bit her tongue to keep from laughing.

**Vicky. I'm going insane, Rashel thought. I completely forgot about her and the others coming back. No, I forgot about their existence.**

**But there were more than three flashlights on the stairs.**

"**The Big E sent us some backup," Vicky was saying, and Rashel felt a surge of fear. She counted five flashlights, and in the edges of her vision she caught the figures of a couple sturdy looking guys. Lancers.**

**Rashel tried desperate to gather her wits.**

**She knew what had to be done, at least. She nudged him with her shoulder and whispered, "Get out of here. There should be another stairway on the other side of the room. When you run for it, I'll get in their way." She pitched her voice so low that only vampire ears could hear it. The good thing about having her face veiled was that nobody could read her lips.**

"Why are you letting me go?" Quinn asked. He wanted-more like needed-to know her reason.

Rashel looked down and answered quietly, "I don't know."

**But Quinn wasn't going. He looked as if he'd just been awakened with a bucketful of ice water. Shacked, angry, and still a little dazed. He stood where he was, staring into all the flashlights like an animal at bay.**

**The lights were advancing. Rashel could make out Vicky's figure now at the front. There was going to be a fight, and people were going to get killed.**

**Steve's voice said, "What did he do to you?"**

"**What's she been doing with **_**him**_**, that's the question," Vicky snapped back. The she said clearly, "Remember, everybody, we want him alive."**

**Rashel gave Quinn a harder shove. "Go." When he just glared, she hissed, "Don't you realize what they want to do to you?"**

**Quinn turned so that the advancing party couldn't see his face, He snarled, "They aren't exactly overjoyed with **_**you**_** either."**

"**I can take care of myself." Rashel was shaking with frustration. "Just leave. Go!"**

**Quinn looked as angry with her as he was with the hunters. He didn't want her help, she realized. He wasn't used to taking anything from anyone, and to be forced to do it made him furious.**

_More than you know._ Quinn growled.

**But there wasn't any other choice. And Quinn finally seemed to recognize that. With one last glare at her, he broke and headed for the darkness at the other side of the cellar.**

**The flashlights swung in confusion. Rashel, glad to be able to **_**move**_**, sprang between the vampire hunters and the stairway.**

**And then there was a lot of fumbling and crashing, with people running into each other and swearing and yelling. Rashel enjoyed the chance to work off her frustration. She got in everyone's way long enough for a very fast vampire to disappear. **

"Strangely, I want to see that." Rowan said.

"I would," Delos grunted.

Many agreeing noises answered these statements.

**After which it was just her and the vampire hunters. Five flashlights turned on her and seven amazed and angry people staring. **

**Rashel got up and brushed herself off. Time to face the consequences. She stood, head high, looking at all of them.**

"**What happened?" Steve said. "Did he hypnotize you?"**

"I thought you could resist telepathy?" Mark said.

"I can," Rashel furrowed her brow in concentration. "I think he's trying to give me an excuse." And it was seriously weird talking about herself like she was someone else.

**Good old Steve. Rashel felt a rush of warmth toward him. But she couldn't use the one he was offering her. She said, "I don't know what happened."**

**And **_**that**_** was true. She couldn't even begin to explain herself what had gone on between her and the vampire. She'd never heard of anything like it.**

"**I think you let him get away on purpose," Vicky said. Rashel couldn't see Vicky's pale blue eyes, but she sensed that they were as hard as marbles. "I think you planned it from the beginning-that's why you told us to go up the street."**

Delos muttered under his breath and Maggie was trying to understand why he seemed to dislike Vicky so much. True, sometimes the girl's statements toward Rashel got on Maggie's nerves she didn't hate her like Delos seemed to.

"**Is that true?" One of the flashlights swung down and suddenly Nyala was in front of Rashel, her body tense, her voice almost pleading. Her eyes were fixed on Rashel's, begging to say it wasn't so. "Did you do it on purpose?"**

**All at once Rashel felt very tired. Nyala was fragile and unstable, and in her own mind she'd made Rashel into a hero. Now that image was being shattered.**

**For Nyala's sake, Rashel almost wished she could lie. But that would be worse in the end. She said expressionlessly, "Yes. I did it on purpose."**

**Nyala recoiled as if Rashel had slapped her.**

**I don't blame you, Rashel thought. I think it's crazy too.**

**The truth was that the farther away she got from Quinn's presence, the less she could understand what she'd done. It was beginning to seem like a dream, and not a very clear dream at that.**

"**But **_**why**_**?" One of the Lancer boys at the back asked. The Lancers knew Rashel, knew her reputation. They didn't want to think the worst of her. Like Nyala, they desperately wanted an excuse.**

"**I don't know why," Rashel said, looking away. "But he wasn't controlling my mind."**

**Nyala exploded.**

"**I **_**hate**_** you," she burst out.**

Quinn bared his teeth slightly, "She doesn't even know you."

He didn't look at her but Rashel was still shocked to hear the annoyance in his voice.

**She was trembling with fury, spitting sentences at Rashel like poison darts. "That vampire could have been the one who killed my sister. Or he could have known who did it. I was going to ask him that, but now I'll never get the chance. Because of **_**you. **_**You let him go. We had him and you let him go!"**

"**It's more than that," Vicky put in, her voice cold and contemptuous. "We were going to ask him about those teenage girls getting kidnapped. Now we can't. So it's going to keep happening, and it's all going to be your fault."**

Quinn was shaking, grabbing onto the couch to keep from destroying the book. All feelings of confusion-like why he would feel this way- vanished from his thoughts as fury took its place.

**And they were right. Even Nyala was right. How did Rashel know that Quinn didn't kill Nyala's sister?**

"**You're a vampire lover," Vicky was saying. "I could tell from the beginning. I don't know, maybe you're one of those damned Daybrakers **

Thea choked, "Did she say Daybreakers?"

Hannah nodded, "Yes, why?"

"Who are they, Thea?" Eric looked down at her.

Thea shook her head, "Circle Daybreak, was once a group of witches who wanted the Night World and humans to get along, but it died out about one hundred years ago."

"Apparently, someone started it back up, and word about it is getting out." Ash noted.

Thierry hummed in response.

"Well, I'm not a Daybreaker and I'm_ not_ a vampire lover." Rashel said harshly.

Quinn just glanced at her shrewdly.

**who wants us all to get along, but you're not on**_** our**_** side."**

**A couple of the Lancers started to protest at this, but Nyala's voice cut through them. "She's on **_**their**_** side?" She stared from Vicky to Rashel, her body rigid, "You just wait. Just wait until I tell people that Rashel is the Cat and that she's on the Night World side. **_**You just wait.**_**"**

Mary-Lynette tilted her head, "Wouldn't that put all of Boston in danger. You said that any human who knows about the Night World is to be put to death; wouldn't that be like killing a whole city?"

Ash glanced at her surprised by the way Mary-Lynette had stated that so calmly yet her life was in just as much danger.

**She's hysterical, Rashel realized. Even Vicky was looking surprised at this, as if she were uneasy at what she'd started.**

"**Nyala, listen-" Rashel began.**

**But Nyala seemed to have reached some peak of fury at which nothing from outside could touch her. "I'll tell everybody in Boston! You'll see!" She whirled around and plunged toward the stairway as if she were going to start doing it right now.**

**Rashel stared after her. Then she said to Vicky, "You'd better send a couple of guys to catch up to her. She's not safe alone in this neighborhood.**

"I don;t think she's safe just by herself," Jez looked down sadly, "The schock of the Night World has become too much for her, and after this, she's unstable."

**Vicky gave her a look that was half angry and half shaken. "Yeah. Okay. Everybody but Steve go after her. You guys take her home."**

**They left, not without a few backward glanced at Rashel.**

"**We'll drive you back," Vicky said, her voice wasn't warm but it wasn't as hostile as it had been.**

"**I'll walk to my own car," Rashel said flatly.**

"**Fine." Vicky hesitated, then blurted, "She probably won't do what she said. She's just upset."**

**Rashel said nothing. Nyala had sounded- and looked- as if she meant to do exactly what she said. And if she did…**

"It would be bad," Mark guessed.

**Well, it would be interesting question as to who would kill Rashel first, the vampires or the vampire hunters.**

"That's one way to put it," Quinn commented on Rashel's wry humor.

"But true," Rashel said.

Quinn just hummed with a small smile.

**Wednesday morning dawned with gray skies and icy rain. Rashel trudged from class to class at Wassaguscus High, lost in thought. At home, her foster family left her alone- they were used to her going her own way. She sat in her small bedroom in the townhouse with the lights dimmed thinking. **

**She still couldn't understand what had happened to her, but with every hour the memory of it was fading steadily. It was too **_**strange **_**to fit into the reality of life, and it became more and more like a dream. One of those dreams in which you do things you would never ordinarily do, and are ashamed of when you wake up in the mornings.**

**All that warmth and closeness- she'd felt that for a **_**vampire**_**? She'd been excited by a parasite's touch? She'd wanted to comfort a leech?**

Rashel noticed Quinn's minor wince and felt slightly guilty.

**And not just any leech, either. The infamous Quinn. The legendary human hater. How could she have let him go? How many people would suffer because of her lapse in sanity?**

**Who knows, she decided finally, maybe it had been some kind of mind control. She certainly couldn't make any sense of it otherwise. **

**By Thursday, one thing at least was clear in her mind. Vicky had been right about the consequences of what she'd done. Rashel hadn't thought about that at the time, but now she had to face it. She had to make it right.**

**She had to fine the kidnapped girls on her own-if **_**girls**_** were getting kidnapped. There was nothing about missing teenagers in the **_**Globe.**_** But if it was happening, Rashel had to find out about it and stop it…if she could.**

**Okay. So she'd go back to Mission Hill tonight and start investigating. Check the warehouse area again-this time, her way.**

**There was one other thing that was clear to her, that became obvious as she got her priorities straight. Something she had to do, not for Nyala, or for Vicky, or for the Lancers, but for herself. For her own honor, and for everybody who lived in the world of sunlight.**

**Next time she saw Quinn, she had to kill him.**

Rashel opened her mouth to speak, "I-" But Quinn wasn't looking and didn't even appear to be listening to her, concentrating with more intensity than needed on the wall across the room, so Rashel clammed up.

**Rashel moved along the deserted street, keeping to the shadows, moving silently. Not easy when the ground was wet and strewn with broken glass. There were no sidewalks, no grass, no plant life of any kind except dead weeds in the abandoned lots. Just soggy trash and shattered bottles.**

**A grim place. It fit Rashel's mood as she made her way stealthily toward the abandoned project building where Vicky had brought them Tuesday night.**

**From its front door, she surveyed the rest of the street. Lots of warehouses. Several of them were protected with high chain-link fences topped with barbed wire. All of them had barred windows-or no windows-and metal freight doors.**

**The security precautions didn't bother Rashel. She knew how to cut chain-link and pick locks. What bothered her was that she didn't know where to start.**

**The Night People could be using any of the warehouses. Even knowing where Steve and Vicky had fought Quinn didn't help, because **_**he**_** jumped **_**them**_**. He'd obviously seen them lying in ambush and deliberately gone after them. Which meant his real destination could have been any of the buildings on this street-or none of them.**

**All right. Patience was indicated here. She'd just have to start at one end…**

**Rashel lost her thought and leaped back into the shadows before she consciously realized why she was doing it. Her ears had picked up a sound-a low rumbling coming from somewhere across the street.**

A growl rummbled low in Keller's throat and she grinned toothily. Rashel only kept poving that she wasn't all human.

**She flattened herself against the brick wall behind her, then kept her body absolutely immobile. Her eyes darted from building to building and she held her breath to hear better.**

**There. It was coming from inside **_**that**_** warehouse, the one down at the far end of the street. And she could identify it now-the sound of an engine.**

**As she watched, the freight door in the front of the warehouse went sliding up. Headlights pierced the night from behind it. A truck was pulling out onto the street.**

**Not a very big truck. A U-Haul. It cleared the doors and stopped. A figure was pulling the sliding metal door down. Now it was making its way to the cab of the U-Haul, climbing in.**

**Rashel strained her eyes, trying to make out any signs of vampirism in the figures movements. She thought she could detect a certain telltale fluidity to the walk, but it was too far away to be sure. And there was nothing else to give her a clue about what was going on.**

**It could be human, she thought. Some warehouse owner going home after a night of balancing books.**

**But her instinct told her differently. The hair at the back of her neck was standing on end.**

**And then, as the truck began to cruise off, something happened that settled her doubts and sent her flying down the street.**

**The back doors of the U-Haul opened just a bit, and a girl fell out. She was slender, and a streetlight caught her blond hair. She landed on the rubble-strewn road and lay there for an instant as of dazed. The she jumped up, looked around wildly and start running in Rashel's direction.**

Quinn slapped his forehead, _Idiots!_

"Another cliff hanger," Poppy groand.

"Here, Hannah, I'll read," Theirry held out his hand, and carefully-making sure not to touch him, Hannah gave it to him.

* * *

** I dislike this chapter more than the last one, it just seems choppy, I'll do better next time.**

**Please review!**


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